Final Fantasy VIII: Islands
by Corvus
Summary: Set before "game time", at the beginning of Quistis's time as an Instructor. Three new faces arrive at Balamb Garden, transfers from Trabia. What is so special about them, and where does their destiny lie? [Rated for fantasy violence and mild language]
1. Final Fantasy VIII: Islands -- Part One

Final Fantasy VIII: Islands  
by Corvus   
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Final Fantasy VIII is property of Squaresoft (http://www.squaresoft.com). This is a work of fan fiction and draws no profit. All locations and groups and all characters except Lucia and Lyra Seagill, Jason Arkady, Raven Argent and Dia L'Nar are property of Squaresoft.  
  
See the Author's Notes at the end for more information regarding this story.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
The vast, glass-ceilinged room was silent except for the occasional turning of a paper within the manilla folder in the hands of Balamb Garden's Headmaster, Cid Kramer. Every so often the middle-aged man would look up from the folder at one of the three young people standing on the other side of his desk, then back at the folder.   
  
Transfers from Trabia Garden, ready to finish their final term before attempting the Field Exam. According to their transcripts they were top students who had come somewhat late to Garden but had advanced rapidly, demonstrating impressive skills with their chosen weapons and high-level comprehension of SeeD procedures, battle tactics and history. They had also proven to be an effective triumvirate and, in the very likely event that they all graduated, it had been recommended by several of their Instructors that they remain together as a standard three-member SeeD unit.  
  
These were definitely the most promising of this year's crop of potential SeeDs. Cid hid a small frown behind the folder; the top three candidates all coming directly from Trabia for their Field Exams made him wonder if he should push Balamb's instructors and students a bit harder.   
  
Finally, after several minutes had gone by, Cid closed the folder and placed it on his desk. "Welcome to Balamb Garden," he began. "As you know, I am Headmaster Cid Kramer; you may call me Headmaster or Headmaster Cid, if you wish. I have read your transcripts, and I must say I am pleased to welcome such fine cadets." None of the three made any sort of move or attempt to reply in the pause that followed.   
  
Cid stood and walked around the end of his desk to face the first cadet, a young man with a cascade of carefully-groomed black hair that hung mostly to the right side of his face. "Vincent Valentine, seventeen years of age, hailing from the Dukedom of Dollet. Your records indicate your proficiency with firearms was second to none in all of Trabia Garden."   
  
Valentine, to his credit, did not fidget as Cid's eyes bored into his, as if seeking the young man's soul. "Yes, Headmaster," said the youth. His voice was quiet, unassuming. "I placed first in the Trabia Summer Shoot three years running, including this year."   
  
*Yes,* Cid thought, *I'd heard that even before I knew you would be transfering to Balamb Garden.* "Good," he said tersely. "We have need of a ranged-weapon specialist. Keep up the good work, but don't neglect melee combat. I'll be certain to let your Instructors know about your skills." He then moved down the line to the next cadet, a pretty girl with dark sable hair pulled into a loose tail that reached down her back to the level of her knees, and wide brown eyes that held a wholesome, harmless innocence -- a lie, if her transcripts were to be believed. She was supposed to be the best unarmed fighter Trabia Garden had seen in some time.   
  
"Tifa Lockheart, also seventeen years old. Hometown, Balamb. Your file says you're a close-combat specialist. Like to work with your hands and feet, hmm?"   
  
"Yes, Headmaster," the girl replied. Her voice was quiet, but there were no soft edges in it, or in her eyes as she stared back at Cid. "My body and my mind are all the weapons I need."   
  
The Headmaster considered Lockheart for a good five seconds, turning over her words and the file's reports. Self-confident, with a stubborn streak a kilometer wide, Lockheart would make an absolutely perfect SeeD -- except for her steadfast refusal to train in any combat styles other than hand-to-hand. Cid thought of another current student from Balamb, Zell Dincht, who was also a hand-to-hand fighter; perhaps the two of them would do well training together. Cid nodded once, then moved to the third cadet, another young man. The youth's spikey yellow hair stood in a disheveled mop atop his head, as if he didn't think much about grooming it in the morning. And yet, if the reports were true...   
  
"Cloud Strife. Seventeen years old, hailing from Timber -- I'd like to hear your story, young Cloud." As with the other cadets, Strife didn't look away or fidget when Cid stared into his eyes. But what Cid saw in Cloud Strife's gaze was not the same as what he had witnessed in Vincent Valentine or Tifa Lockheart's. Just as the file said, Cloud Strife was a distant loner. Cid began to see a resemblance between Strife and another student at Balamb Garden, one Squall Leonhart. Like Leonhart, Strife had chosen a large, long blade as his primary weapon. Unfortunately, Strife had chosen a pure blade, and not the vaunted gunblade. "Tell me, Cloud, have you ever given thought to learning to use a gunblade?"   
  
For a moment Cid thought the blonde student wasn't going to answer; then, Strife said simply, "No, sir."   
  
*How like Squall,* Cid thought. *I wonder what would happen if we put them in a room together. Probably nothing at all.* After taking a moment to examine each of the cadets in turn, Cid returned to his chair. "You will receive your schedules this afternoon. You have already been assigned rooms in the dormitory?" The three students nodded in unison. "When you leave here there will be a student to lead you to them. You have the rest of today to yourselves. I suggest you take the time to explore. I hear the cafeteria is serving hot dogs today, you'll definitely want to investigate those," Cid said with a smile.   
  
When none of the cadets returned that smile, Cid did his best to force down a sigh. "Very well. Welcome to Balamb Garden, Mister Valentine, Miss Lockheart, Mister Strife. Dismissed." Cid waved off their precise salutes, right hands held vertically in front of the right cheek and eye, palms toward themselves. The cadets turned on their heels and marched from Cid's office into the waiting room beyond.   
  
*This should prove interesting,* the Headmaster thought to himself as he stared at the closed folder. Interesting, indeed. *So they're the ones...*  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
Tifa leaned back against the wall of the elevator and closed her eyes as the car began to hum downward. "So, what do you think of him?" she asked of her companions.   
  
Not surprisingly, the only one to answer was Vincent, with that soft voice of his. "He reminds me a bit of Headmaster Rebecca."   
  
Tifa's eyes opened. "Why do you say that?" she asked in surprise.   
  
"The way he assessed each of us," said Vincent. "It was as if he knew what we would say."   
  
Cloud had a response to that. "If he knew what we were going to say, why did he ask us anything?"   
  
The only answer to Cloud's question was the dinging of the elevator and the soft hiss of the opening doors. Waiting for them was a petite dark-haired girl with smooth, nut-brown skin, dressed in a student's uniform. Her jade-green eyes lit up as she smiled at them. "Hi! You're the transfer students from Trabia Garden, right?"   
  
Tifa nodded to her. "That's right. I'm Tifa, and this is Cloud and Vincent." She inclined her head to her left, and then to her right as she gave her companions' names.   
  
"I'm Lucia," said the girl. Lucia continued to smile as she spoke. "Headmaster Cid asked me to show you to your quarters so that you can rest up a bit, and I can show you around Balamb Garden this afternoon."   
  
"Thank you," Vincent said. Tifa echoed the thanks, leaving the silent Cloud to look, as usual, like a jackass. Throughout Trabia Garden, Cloud Strife had been known for his withdrawn nature. For the first few weeks that Cloud had been at Trabia his fellow students had attempted to get him involved in social activities, sports, card games and poetry readings, but his continual refusal to have anything to do with them outside of class had eventually driven them off. All except for Tifa Lockheart and Vincent Valentine, and even they weren't sure why they stood by Cloud.   
  
*Time enough for reflection later,* Tifa told herself as Lucia began leading them away from the elevator and down the stairs. The girl chattered aimlessly about Balamb Garden and how much they were going to enjoy living and studying here as they walked. Trailing behind Vincent, Tifa and Lucia, Cloud took a moment to look up from the grand circular promenade, casting his gaze about the cavernous central commons. Ingenious materials and construction dampened echoes and allowed indirect lighting to fill the commons with a warm, welcoming glow. Carefully groomed plants filled beds atop the outer wall that separated the polished marble promenade from the placid reflecting pools ringing the walkway. Somehow, some way, whoever had built this place had managed to combine spaciousness with just the right amount of enclosure. Cloud allowed himself to be inwardly impressed; outside he maintained his calm, detached facade.   
  
Lucia continued to talk as the four passed by the spoke walkways leading to the library, training center and Garden parking garage and came to the spoke that led to the dormitory. Here Lucia paused. "Over there is the cafeteria, the quad and the infirmary. If you get lost, the directory is in front of the elevator, that big board. Okay, let's go find your rooms!" Tifa and Vincent shared a smiling glance as the bubbly cadet began walking away. Cloud ran a hand through his spikey blonde hair and sighed. This was going to be a long day.   
  
Outside the commons the walkway passed groomed gardens and quiet study benches. A column-supported ceiling with intermittent skylight openings ran overhead. The more Tifa saw of Balamb Garden, the more she felt she would be more at home here than she had ever been in frigid Trabia. For an instant she thought that if she listened hard enough she might just hear the familiar sounds of the ocean far off across the Alcauld Plains... No. Just her imagination transforming the bustle of students, SeeDs and Instructors into something familiar. But Tifa smiled anyway. She was closer to home than she had been in years, and she could feel it in her soul.   
  
Vincent was no stranger to living with this many people nearby. As Lucia took them up a small flight of stairs in the middle of the covered walkway he thought of his home, Dollet, and of his father. Captain Frederick Valentine had never wanted his son to join the military, but Vincent wanted to make his father proud and to uphold the family tradition of military service to the Duke that went back four generations. SeeD had been a compromise between father and son; Vincent would get the training he wished and would get to see the world, and Frederick could rest easier at night, knowing his son would be safer in Garden than he would in the Dollet Armed Forces -- especially with Galbadia starting to make noises. So, Frederick had applied to Garden to accept Vincent, and Vincent had been accepted. The young boy had gone off to Trabia Garden to begin his career, and now, here he stood, one term away from becoming a full-fledged SeeD. Vincent thought his father would be proud.   
  
For Cloud Strife, this was just another stop on his road into the future. Yes, Balamb Garden was different in many ways from Trabia Garden, just as Trabia had been so different from his beleagured home of Timber, but there were still SeeD uniforms all around, Instructors telling him what was right and best, deadlines to be met. He learned their lessons because he knew it was easier, for now, to do what they expected, and he applied himself to the tasks at hand. All he really cared about was graduating. All Cloud wanted was to be able to go home and put it to the Galbadians who had taken over his city and killed everyone who had ever meant anything to him. His mother, his father, his only friend Zack. Galbadia would pay for what they had done to Timber, he would make sure of it.   
  
"Cloud?" Young Strife's thoughts were interrupted by Vincent's quiet voice and the other teen's hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right? You're glaring at the sky again."   
  
"I'm fine," Cloud said in a quick dismissal of his companion's concern. He tolerated Vincent and Tifa's presence for reasons he couldn't name. He couldn't bring himself to push them away completely no matter what he thought. For five long years they had known each other, and for five years Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart were the only people who had ever seen Cloud Strife smile, and that only once or twice.   
  
"All right." Vincent removed his hand and offered a small smile, then sped up his steps to catch Tifa and the still-bubbling Lucia.   
  
"Will we get to go into town?" Tifa was asking.   
  
Lucia nodded enthusiastically, shaking her hair in rippling waves. "Oh, yeah. It's not far at all, and there aren't many monsters. There aren't any at all if you go by car."   
  
The dormitory was laid out in a regular pattern, easy to understand and navigate. Vincent and Cloud had been given a students' suite together, and by some strange coincidence -- probably with the name Cid Kramer -- Tifa was rooming with Lucia. Each suite contained a common living room, with a table and four padded stools, two work station terminals and shelves, a shower room and two separate sleeping cubicles with single beds, dressers and endtables. Cloud and Vincent's suite was completely barren except for their recently-delivered personal effects, having been cleaned out for their arrival. Tifa, however, was greeted with a homey, comfortable living space. Lucia kept several potted plants and a small glass aquarium of colorful tropical fish in the living room and had lit a stick of fresh, clean incense before leaving to meet the newcomers. "Welcome home!" she said with a grin.   
  
"This is great," Tifa said as she turned a slow circle to take in the room. "Everything was pretty spartan in Trabia. Had to rely on your friends to cheer you up a lot more. I can see things are a little more relaxed here."   
  
"Yeah. We try to make things a bit more like home. Have you ever been to Galbadia Garden?" Lucia asked.   
  
Tifa shook her head as she sat on one of the stools at the long table. "No, why?"   
  
Lucia made an "mmm"ing noise and clicked her tongue. "It's like living in the Galbadian military barracks over there. Everything is professional. They aren't even allowed to play Triple Triad!"   
  
That came as a bit of a shock. Triple Triad, the world's most popular card game, was one of the many diversions Trabia Garden's students had used to keep their minds occupied in their free time. Headmaster Rebecca had actively recommended that her students learn the game and hold regular tournaments as a way of mingling and sharpening their tactical skills. To ban the game seemed a bit like heresy to Tifa. "That's pretty bad," she said.   
  
The dark, pretty girl nodded sagely, "mmm"ing again. "Real hardcases over there. But we're not like that."   
  
"I think I'm glad."   
  
"So am I," Lucia agreed. The girls shared a laugh, and Tifa found another thing to be grateful for. She was already starting to like her cheerful roommate. "So, want to go see what the guys are doing with their space?"   
  
Tifa shook her head. "Let's give them a few minutes. I want to put my things away, anyway."   
  
"Sure thing. Want some music?"   
  
A wide smile curved Tifa's lips. "That would be great." This was going to be the best term yet, she thought.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Vincent sat on his bed and gently, almost reverentially, set the charcoal-gray shell-case that held his Quicksilver pistol beside himself. He thumbed the four-symbol combination locks to the proper setting and flipped open the lid that bore the SeeD symbol and three small rectangular black stickers that all proclaimed "I Survived The Trabia Summer Shoot!". Inside, nestled into the form-fitting dark gray padding, was his pride and joy.   
  
He pulled the pistol, a gift from his father, from the padding and began stripping the weapon with expert ease. Even before he had joined Garden his father had taught him respect for and care of firearms, how to disassemble, clean, reassemble and properly use them. "A properly respected weapon will serve you well even if you never have to use it," his father had said to him repeatedly. "Treat your sidearm as you would your family -- with all the care and attention you would give to the one you trust with your life." As far as Vincent had ever been able to tell, Frederick had done just that, giving each member of his family special attention, including letting them do what they felt they needed to do -- such as letting Vincent join Garden. Vincent wondered if he should call his family in Dollet this evening to let them know he had arrived safely. They had been very happy to hear that he was transfering to Balamb Garden and to know that there was a very good chance he would be a full-fledged SeeD at the end of this term.   
  
As Vincent pulled out the cleaning kit that was packed into the shell-case he looked up to see Cloud in the living room, pulling out his sword. Like the shell for Vincent's pistol, the long sword-case displayed the SeeD logo. There was no other decoration on the case. The blade was a Galbadian military-issue Hardedge sword, with a eighty-four centimeter long, five-centimeter wide, single-edged beveled blade, a thirty-centimeter handle and a twenty-three centimeter finger guard extending from the hilt. The sword was a bounty, Cloud's prize for taking the life of a Galbadian soldier in Timber. Like he always did before he cleaned the sword, Cloud stared into the highly-polished blade, past his own reflecton to something only he could see. Vincent knew that unless Cloud voluntarily spoke of what he saw, the blonde boy's vision would remain a mystery. Vincent knew better than to try to talk to Cloud right now. Cloud's ritual had begun and the aspiring swordsman would not come back to the outer world until it was over.   
  
With a soft sigh Vincent turned his attention back to his own weapon. The Quicksilver was a highly reliable model, accurate and solidly-built, and the standard-issue sidearm of Dollet's army. Its eight-shot clip was modular with several other Dollet pistol models and the ammunition was compatible with most of the world's standard firearms. The pistol's light weight and low recoil contributed to its accuracy, and made it possible to use two at once with a fair degree of success, though such "cowboy heroics" were officially frowned upon by the Armed Forces. Vincent had given thought to training with two Quicksilvers, but in the end he had decided to stay with one.   
  
Frederick's litany played through Vincent's mind as he cleaned each individual piece of his weapon with total concentration. "Each piece is part of a greater whole. Like society, each individual must be able to give its utmost. If one piece fails, the whole will fail." As Frederick applied this philosophy to everything in life, so too had Vincent come to see the similarities. Vincent didn't have his father's absolute conviction, but he could see the wisdom in those words.   
  
Vincent snapped the Quicksilver back together and once again looked out from his cubicle to where Cloud sat on a stool, wiping the blade of his sword with steady, deliberate strokes. The weighty psychological significance of his roommate's ritual crushed any potential jokes about phallic symbolism in Vincent's mind; he knew this had nothing to do with manhood. With what it did have to do, Vincent couldn't tell. Cloud had never explained it and probably never would.  
  
At that moment, however, Cloud unexpectedly paused in his polishing and lifted his intense blue eyes from the blade. "I wonder what Tifa's doing right now," he said.   
  
The fact that Cloud was thinking about someone other than his focus was startling in itself. The fact that Cloud had paused in his ritual to ask that question was more shocking by several orders of magnitude. Vincent blinked several times, attempted to find his voice and said finally, "I don't know. She and Lucia should be back at some point."   
  
"Oh." With that single syllable, Cloud folded back into his inner world and resumed polishing the already markless blade of his sword.   
  
Silence stretched as Vincent donned his holster belt, loaded and holstered his Quicksilver, and placed the shell-case under his bed. The small mirror atop his dresser showed him a near-perfect SeeD cadet, his uniform impeccable, his weapon well-maintained, his physical appearance well-groomed. Surely he was guaranteed to graduate.  
  
Mirrors, as Vincent knew very well, lied. If he didn't keep busting his butt right up to the end, he could very well fail. He took off the belt, popped the clip from the Quicksilver and replaced everything in the case. He wouldn't be needing it right now.   
  
Despite the differences between Trabia and Balamb Gardens, some things were the same. These included the door beeper. "I'll get it," Vincent said reflectively. Cloud didn't seem to notice as Vincent strode to the door and opened it.   
  
Lucia and Tifa smiled at him in tandem. "You ready to tour the Garden?" Lucia asked him.   
  
"In a few minutes. Want to come in?" Vincent asked as he stood aside from the door. He knew Cloud would not be ready to even acknowledge their company for at least another three minutes.   
  
The girls stepped into the room. Tifa frowned at the spartan living room, which displayed not a single personal touch. "You aren't going to leave it this way, are you?" she asked Vincent.   
  
The black-haired teen shrugged. "Haven't really given it any thought."   
  
Before Tifa or Vincent could warn Lucia about Cloud's sword-cleaning ritual, the dark girl flopped herself down on the stool across the table from the blonde boy. "That's a Galbadian military sword, isn't it?" she inquired. The moment she spoke Tifa and Vincent stumbled over their own words and each other's, trying to redirect her attention.   
  
For the second time that day Cloud surprised Vincent by looking up from his sword. "Yeah," he said to Lucia. "I took it from the Galbadian soldier I killed."   
  
The girl's jade-green eyes didn't even flicker. "You're from Timber, right?" When Cloud nodded she continued, "Were you a member of one of the resistance factions?"   
  
Cloud shook his head slowly as he pulled the sword's metal scabbard from the shell-case and slid the blade home with a "chink". "No," he said. "I was just a kid who watched his best friend get cut down by a drunk off-duty soldier for not moving out of the way fast enough. I guess I snapped... I snuck up behind the soldier and hit him over the head with a pipe. And then I kept hitting him until he died. There wasn't anything I could do for Zack... I took the sword so that I wouldn't forget my promise to make the Galbadians pay for what they've done." When he was finished speaking he began to wonder why he was telling all this to someone he'd never met before today. He'd never said that much to Tifa and Vincent, and they were his only friends.  
  
"That's terrible," Lucia said. She reached out and placed her hand on Cloud's arm. "You know we're all here for you, right? That's part of what SeeD's about, sticking together. Am I right?" she asked as she looked to Tifa and Vincent, who both nodded silently. Had the change of Gardens broken through a barrier within Cloud? Or was there something about Lucia that enabled her to get past Cloud's emotional shields? Whatever it was, they had learned something vitally important about him.  
  
"I appreciate that," Cloud told her flatly. "But I can handle myself okay." He placed the sheathed sword back into the shell-case and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "I'm ready when you are."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
This couldn't be happening. After just one day, one full day of teaching classes at Balamb Garden as a substitue Instructor, the Headmaster had called for her to come to his office. What had she done wrong? What had she said to displease him?   
  
No, it can't be that, Quistis Trepe thought as she awaited the central elevator that would take her to the third floor, to Headmaster Cid Kramer's office. After all this time, he wouldn't summon me to his office without any other word just to chastize me. It has to be something else.   
  
With a muted ding and a hiss of air the elevator doors opened. Several uniformed janitors stepped from the lift, each with a smile and a hello for Quistis. They knew Quistis, they had for years. She greeted them all by name, assured them that she was feeling all right after her very first day as an Instructor. They wished her continued success and walked away, leaving her with her thoughts and an empty elevator. Quistis drew in a nervous breath, let it out. Nothing to it but to do it, she quoted in her mind. With that, she stepped into the elevator and pressed the third floor button.   
  
The ride up seemed interminable, though it was really no more than a few seconds. The doors hissed open to admit her to the Headmaster's waiting room. To her surprise, awaiting her there was a fellow SeeD and a longtime friend, Raven Argent. He was rather tall and lankey, with curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and handsome green eyes. "Did Cid ask to see you too, Quistis?" he asked. When Quistis nodded he continued, "Do you have any idea what this is about?"   
  
"Not at all," the willowy blonde admitted. "I had a message relayed to me by a student just after classes ended today. He said the Headmaster wanted to see me immediately, nothing more."   
  
Raven frowned in thought for a moment, then forced the expression away. He smoothed the jacket of his SeeD uniform and looked at the door to Cid's office. "I'm sure it's nothing bad. After all, he asked both of us to come. What kind of trouble could it be then, hmm?" He looked directly at Quistis, knowing they both were having the same thoughts. They laughed at the memories, all the good times that had come before, and, heartened by the good spirits, stepped through the door into the Headmaster's office.   
  
Cid was waiting for them with a smile of his own. Raven and Quistis immediately relaxed as he rose to greet them. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. This probably could have waited until after dinner, but I thought you might want to be prepared, just in case."   
  
"In case of what, Headmaster?" Raven asked. When Cid Kramer acted mysterious, strange things were going to happen. If he smiled as he did it, the world could very well be in trouble.   
  
The middle-aged man pointed to the closed folder that sat on his desk. "I have here the transcripts for our three newest students, transfers from Trabia Garden. You both will be working with them."   
  
Quistis felt herself beginning to tighten up again. Were these three going to be troublemakers? She already had her hands full with Seifer Almasy and Squall Leonhart. Seifer, the self-styled leader of the "disciplinary committee", an arrogant, hot-headed student who, Quistis thought privately, would never graduate to SeeD; and Squall, an icy loner who barely came out of his shell enough to answer questions in class. Seifer and Squall, a pair of gunblade-weilding cowboys. Seifer and Squall. At least they sat in the back of the class and let the serious students attend to their work in front. A note left for her by the outgoing Instructor she had replaced had warned her about those two, but the teaching them was something that had to be experienced first-hand to be believed.   
  
Cid walked over and sat on the edge of his desk, opening the folder. "Vincent Valentine, Tifa Lockheart and Cloud Strife. Each of them has high marks in both classroom and physical training, each of them shows potential to be an exemplary SeeD. Each of them is also showing a somewhat troublesome trait -- they've all hit plateaus in their skills. None of their previous Instructors can explain it. I'd like you to observe them. This sort of meteoric rise is... unusual." He glanced up briefly at Raven and Quistis and took in their nods, then said, "That will be the easy part. One of them has... issues. Now, now, don't groan just yet," he said, cutting off deepening frowns from both of them. "Cloud Strife isn't a bad young man. He's simply withdrawn. Goes back to an event in his childhood. Something tickled my memory and when I checked, I remembered receiving his application personally some years back. He killed a Galbadian soldier in Timber, keeps the sword as his own weapon. I approved Cloud's entry into Garden because I saw vast potential about to become squandered." Cid offered the folder to the SeeDs. "The twin shocks of watching his best friend be killed, and then killing the man who did it, nearly broke young Mister Strife, but we were able to get him back on his feet. I think he's done remarkably well, and I anticipate his graduation."   
  
"A personal project, Headmaster?" Raven asked as she glanced over Cloud Strife's transcripts. Cid was known for his personal projects. Quistis herself had been one, for which she would be eternally grateful. It was interesting how Cid's hand-picked students seemed to be destined to work together.   
  
"You could say that. Cloud regrets what he did that day, which is good, but I don't think he's let the wound completely heal. Trabia Garden counsellors were only able to do so much with him. Vincent and Tifa have stood by him the whole time, and I think they've helped him more than any counsellor could have. But I want the two of you to step in and make sure Cloud Strife is one hundred fifty percent fit for SeeD when he graduates."   
  
The steel in Cid's voice and an involuntary gasp from Quistis made Raven look up from the folder. There had to be more to Cid's motives than he was saying. "Headmaster?" the green-eyed male SeeD asked, unable to put voice to the tumbling thoughts in his mind.   
  
Cid cleared his throat and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I'm asking the two of you to do this, Raven, Quistis, because I have the utmost faith in you. I always have." He smiled warmly at them. "I owe it to these cadets to see that they can reach their full potential. And I need your help to do that. Quistis, you will be seeing Cloud, Tifa and Vincent in class tomorrow. Raven, I want you to take up supervising their physical training personally. Tifa especially -- she's a hand-to-hand specialist. I think she and Zell will get along well."   
  
Quistis and Raven nodded. Each of them had reservations, but if Cid had faith in them and in Cloud, there had to be a way. I just hope, Quistis thought, that he doesn't turn out to be another Squall Leonhart. I don't need them trying to out-loner each other in the middle of class... "Is there anything else, Headmaster?" she asked.   
  
"Just for me to ask how your first day as an Instructor went." The familiar warmth that Quistis had always known from Cid flowed through her as the older man inquired about her day.   
  
"Oh, it went as well as could be expected. I'm a bit concerned about Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy, but I don't think they should be too much of a problem for the rest of the class." She hoped they wouldn't be. She prayed they wouldn't be. Especially with the addition of this Cloud Strife.   
  
"Seifer is a professional student. He's made a career of it." The three of them laughed at the truth of Cid's words. "Don't worry yourself about Seifer and Squall, they'll do just fine. Though... Raven, maybe you could have one or the both of them introduce Cloud to the gunblade?"   
  
The almost child-like light of hope in the Headmaster's eyes as he asked this of Raven made him snicker. Cid's desire to have a gunblade specialist in SeeD was well-known. His hopes for a master of the strange combination weapon were riding right now on Squall, and perhaps Seifer if the stars were right. Cloud would graduate first... "I'll see what I can do."   
  
"All right." Cid placed each hand on one of their shoulders and nodded approvingly. "If you have any problems at all, you know you can come to me."   
  
"Of course, Headmaster," they agreed. Cid gripped their shoulders for a moment, then let them go. "I have things to attend to, so if you'll excuse me, I'll go about them. I'll see you at dinner."   
  
"Thank you, Headmaster." The SeeDs saluted, and as always Cid sniffed good-naturedly at their upraised hands. The two stepped from the Headmaster's office and looked to each other as the door closed.   
  
"You know there's more to this than he's letting on," Raven said.   
  
Quistis nodded her agreement firmly. "But we won't find out what it is unless we go along with it."   
  
"As ever," Raven replied. She pushed the button for the elevator. "Perhaps we should go meet these transfers."   
  
"Let's do a little research first," Quistis said, pointing to the folder he friend still held. "It pays to make them think you know things about them."   
  
Raven couldn't hold in a chuckle. "I wonder where you learned that trick."   
  
"Only from the best," said Quistis. She stepped into the elevator when the doors opened. Look out world, here comes Cid Kramer's next special project...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
The cafeteria bustled with students and faculty that evening as Lucia led the slightly bewildered Tifa, Vincent and Cloud to the end of their exhaustive tour of Balamb Garden. The dark girl had led them over almost every square centimeter of the Garden's floor after lunch, showing them the quad, parking garage, library, classrooms and grounds. They had gone to the Infirmary, where the trio had been introduced to Doctor Kadowaki and scheduled routine physicals. The only place Lucia had not taken them was the training center, because, except for Tifa, they were all completely unarmed.   
  
The cafeteria's massive arching windows glowed with the firey Balamb evening, bathing the diners in a warm glow. The quartet stood in line for their meals; Tifa and Vincent shared their thoughts about the tour. Cloud remained silent, watching the crowd.   
  
The evening's dinner was a hearty meatloaf with sides of green beans and rice, served with fresh-baked rolls, milk to drink and brownies for desert. Tifa wrinkled her nose at the beans, reminding herself to give them to Cloud, who would eat just about anything without complaint. Lucia scanned the tables, looking for a place for them to sit. Four students stood, clearing a perfect spot...   
  
At the table next to the one now vacant, a game of Triple Triad had drawn a small crowd. Tifa, Vincent, Cloud and Lucia set their trays at the empty table, and Lucia nudged her way between two tall male SeeD cadets to see what was going on.   
  
Two SeeDs sat facing each other across the table. A mat marked with lines that divided its surface into nine neat squares lay between them. Several cards bearing pictures of monsters, each marked with four numbers, rested on the mat, facing sideways so that each man could see them equally well. On one side, a brown-haired man with sharp, bird-like features squinted his dark green eyes at the two cards remaining in his hand. Across from him, his fire-headed opponent smirked over the top of his cards. "Come on, Raven, we ain't got all night."   
  
Lucia knew both the combatants well. Raven Argent, SeeD, physical trainer and a close friend of Instructor Trepe; and Jason Arkady, another SeeD and another of Raven's friends. Raven's parents knew Lucia's mother Lyra and Raven himself had watched out for Lucia during her time at Garden, much like a big brother. Raven chewed on his lip for a few seconds, then selected a card and placed it on the mat, showing he was playing red. When he did so, he took one of Jason's blue cards and flipped it to its red face.   
  
"You're a real pain, Argent," said Jason. He placed a blue card under the one he had just lost, returning the flipped card to its original blue state. "Real pain."   
  
"If you liked that, you're gonna love this." Raven took the remaining card from his hand and placed it in the last open square, at the bottom left of the mat. "Plus," he said as he flipped the cards above and to the right of the one he had played. "Combo," he continued as he flipped the center card, which Jason had just played the turn before. "Looks like it's mine."   
  
Jason slapped his remaining card down on the table and growled. The card, which Raven gleefully claimed as his prize, depicted a drawing of the draconic Guardian Force known as Bahamut, King of Dragonkind. "I'll get that back from you," Jason declared. The crowd began to disperse with murmurs and the story of the game started to spread.   
  
"I'm sure," Raven said with a wink. He looked up and saw that Lucia was still standing there, shaking her head and chuckling. "Hey, Lucia, you up for a game?"   
  
"Oh, no. I'm smarter than that," she said.   
  
"What?" Raven folded his hands and smiled beatifically. "You act like I'm some sort of devil or something."   
  
"You very well might be." She turned her dazzling smile to Jason. "How are you doing, Jason? Holding up against Raven okay?"   
  
The tall, broad-shouldered SeeD ran a hand through his red hair and sighed heavily. "He took my best card!"   
  
Lucia patted the top of his head and said, "You'll be all right. I should get back to my new friends here. I'll talk to you two later, okay?"   
  
Jason looked up at Lucia and smirked, then paused. His eyes widened. He stood, towering over Lucia, and looked straight at Vincent. "Vince? Vince Valentine!"   
  
The dark-haired teen turned in his chair and stopped mid-sentence at the familiar voice. "Jase!" He rose and stepped over to clasp the towering redhead's forearm.   
  
"I'd heard you'd fallen into this pit trap of a mercenary force," Jason said, "but I didn't figure I'd see you here at Balamb."   
  
"Strange how fate works, isn't it," Vincent concurred. He squeezed his old friend's arm one more time, then let go to wave a hand to indicated his friends. "Jase, this is Tifa Lockheart and Cloud Strife, my two partners in crime from Trabia Garden. Tifa, Cloud, this is SeeD Jason Arkady, the guy I told you about. The son of my father's commanding officer."   
  
Tifa waved amiably. Cloud paused in his eating long enough to mumble a greeting, then returned to his meal. "Friendly sort, isn't he," Jason said in a low voice to Vincent.   
  
"Oh, behave," Lucia said as she swatted Jason on his bicep. The large man feigned a wince; she could have kicked him full-force in the gut and not moved him a centimeter. Lucia's mother, on the other hand... She walked around behind Raven and placed her chin atop his ponytailed head. "Guys, this card shark over here is SeeD Raven Argent. You'll probably spend some time with him this term. SeeD Argent, this is Vincent Valentine, Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart."   
  
"I am not a card shark," Raven protested. "I prefer the term 'card magician'." He nodded to the newcomers, dislodging Lucia in the process. "I'd heard we got some promising new transfers from Trabia. Glad to meet you."   
  
"And looking forward to walloping you in the training room," Jason stage-whispered.   
  
Raven shot him an ugly look, then laughed. "I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. The Headmaster did indeed ask me to see to your training personally."  
  
"All three of us?" Vincent asked, somewhat incredulous. Everyone here was treating the three of them like they were a team already. Was that the Headmaster's intent?  
  
The brown-haired SeeD nodded. "All three of you. I figure you're still getting settled in, so I'll see you tomorrow after lunch. I have to be going, I've got a special session this evening and I have to go warm up." He slipped his Triple Triad deck, including his hard-won draconic bounty, into a pocket of his long black coat, picked up his tray, nodded to the gathering again and walked away. Jason excused himself as well.   
  
"Does everybody know everybody around here?" Tifa asked Lucia.   
  
Lucia nodded as she chewed. Swallowing, she explained, "Pretty much. And if you don't know someone, it's sure that someone else you know does."   
  
"It's like the legendary 'six degrees'," said Vincent. "Just smaller."   
  
Cloud set his fork onto his empty plate and wiped his lips on his napkin. He had to admit that the meal was delicious, better even than Trabia Garden's fare, which was prepared by some of the best cooks an institution could hire. "I'd like to go into town after dinner," he said simply.   
  
"Sure thing," Lucia said. "It'll be good to get some light exercise after... oh..." She trailed off, her eyes focusing toward the exit from the cafeteria. The others followed her gaze to see Raven standing, his hands clasped in front of himself as he spoke with a female SeeD, a tall blonde wearing small, elegant spectacles. "Instructor Trepe," Lucia explained. "He's been in love with her for years. It's so romantic..."   
  
"I can see it, the way he looks into her eyes," Tifa said softly. "He's cute. Is she with somebody else?"   
  
"Instructor Trepe? No, never has been. She's our age, but she's an Instructor, so she really doesn't have much time for a personal life."   
  
"That's sad," said Vincent. There didn't seem to be anything more than strong friendship between the two SeeDs, much like between himself and Tifa. Lucia was probably just repeating gossip.   
  
As the students watched, Raven and Quistis parted ways with an almost covert touching of hands. On his way out of the cafeteria Raven paused for a few seconds to converse with a different tall, blonde female SeeD. This one was wearing a white coat over her uniform. "And that's Dia L'nar. She works with Doctor Kadowaki a lot," said Lucia. The conversation ended and Raven disappeared, but the young woman continued looking after him for several seconds.  
  
When Tifa, Vincent and Lucia turned back to each other they noticed Cloud still gazing at Quistis, who was standing in line. "Balamb Garden to Cloud Strife, come in Strife," Lucia quipped, waving her hand in front of Cloud's eyes.   
  
"Huh?" The spikey-haired blonde blinked rapidly and focused on his companions. "What?"   
  
"You went spacey on us," Lucia said. "What were you thinking?"   
  
"Nothing," insisted Cloud. Vincent was inclined to believe him, but the girls looked ready to press the issue. Cloud pushed himself away from the table and picked up his tray. "Come on, I'd like to get to town and back before it gets too late."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
A sharp click-clack resounded in the small sleeping cubicle as Vincent slapped the clip of his Quicksilver home. He thumbed the safety to the on position and holstered it with a spinning flourish. Vincent was looking forward to this short sojourn; cold Trabia offered few opportunities for a stroll. "You ready, Cloud?"   
  
"I'm ready," came his roommate's voice. Cloud stepped out from his own cubicle and looked in on Vincent. His sword hung rakishly from his left hip. "Think we might run into trouble?"   
  
Vincent replied, "Probably not. Balamb's a quiet town, and the monsters around here are supposed to be pretty docile. At least, compared to things like Mesmerizes and Snow Lions."   
  
The blonde's eyes rolled a bit as he remembered a cold, gray day several years back. He, Vincent and Tifa had been walking trails in the forest north of Trabia Garden. When they began their trek back to the Garden, two of the blade-horned Mesmerizes -- large, very agressive white-furred animals resembling the unicorns of legend, with great arcing blades attached to their heads instead of spiraling horns -- had charged at them. The resulting brawl had been too close-in for Vincent to make effective use of his Quicksilver. Only Cloud's sword and Tifa's fists had proven effective. "Just make sure you've got your GF with you this time, Vincent."   
  
At Cloud's words, Vincent reached up to touch his chest where, underneath his uniform, a deep blue sapphire hung from a simple silver chain. This sapphire was his connection to the powerful ice spirit known as Shiva -- a Guardian Force. Through the stone, Vincent could summon the essence of Shiva to freeze his enemies. As well, the mystic connection allowed Vincent to draw para-magic potential -- spells -- from monsters and hidden fountains of power called Draw Points. There was more to the relationship with GF's, but that was a class he would be taking this very term. Vincent nodded. "Got it."   
  
Cloud himself wore a golden chain from which an astonishingly clear quartz point hung, the symbol of his connection to Quetzacoatl, a spirit of thunder and lightning. Tifa had about her neck a vibrant blue iolite pendant; the young woman had been exceedingly lucky and formed a connection to mighty Leviathan, master of the ocean depths. "Let's go," Cloud said. He turned and walked from the room, Vincent following close behind.   
  
The commons of Balamb Garden was quieter than it had been in the afternoon, as most of the students had returned to their rooms to study or gone to the quad, gardens or training center. Tifa and Lucia met Vincent and Cloud in the main lobby, the large southern spoke of the commons wheel that faced the central elevator. Tifa was wearing her fingerless Metal Knuckle gauntlets. Two squarish, slender metal rods hung from Lucia's belt on quick-snap loops, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. "Thought you got lost," Tifa joked.   
  
Vincent smirked and pointed at one of the odd metal objects at Lucia's side. "What's that?"   
  
With one smooth motion Lucia snatched both objects off her belt and flipped them open to reveal razor-sharp steel-bladed battle fans, called kinzoke-sensu. The sudden explosive snap of the metal-fiber cloth being pulled taut made Cloud, Tifa and Vincent jump backward in surprise. "You like?" None of them had ever seen such a weapon. The skill required to properly use one in battle must be tremendously difficult to learn, thought Cloud. Lucia proudly demonstrated her ability, moving through a complex twisting kata whose cuts would have left an enemy shredded to ribbons and ending with the fans folded once more and replaced at her side. Her beaming grin was infectious; even Cloud felt the tug of a smile. "Pretty cool, huh?"   
  
"Where did you pick those up?" asked Tifa.   
  
The dark girl shrugged as if the answer were of no account. "Oh, my mother had them for a long time. She drilled me in them, knives, swords and hand-to-hand techniques. When I came to Garden she gave them to me, and I've stuck with them ever since." She turned and began walking toward the front gate. "Off to Balamb Town we go!"   
  
Vincent and Cloud walked several steps behind their companions. "What do you think of her?" Vincent asked Cloud quietly.   
  
The blonde shook his head slowly. "She reminds me of that Tilmitt girl."   
  
A laugh bubbled up from inside Vincent. He, too, had compared Lucia to Selphie Tilmitt, Trabia Garden's petite dynamo of endless energy and good cheer with a flip hairdo. Definitely the most well-known student at Trabia, if not the best-liked, Selphie saw it as her own personal duty to make Trabia Garden a happier place. Lucia wasn't quite as frenetic as Selphie Tilmitt but the similarities were quite noticeable. "You seem to like her okay."   
  
Cloud's blue eyes locked onto Vincent and narrowed. "Meaning what?"   
  
Vincent held up his hands in a placatory gesture. "Nothing, nothing. Just, she interrupted your little ritual and asked you some pretty pointed questions, and you didn't even glare at her."   
  
With a shake of his head Cloud looked away. "Didn't see any reason not to tell her." His tone carried a finality with which Vincent was quite familiar. Cloud wouldn't say any more about it, and if he was pushed, would simply walk away.   
  
The main lobby's open outer entrance was spanned by a row of gates. Sitting in a booth off to the right was an older man in dark pants held up by suspenders over his white shirt. He wore an old-fashioned red newsboy cap on his head. He waved to Lucia as the quartet filed out into the open air. "Going for a walk?"   
  
"Taking my friends to Balamb. She's from there," Lucia explained as she nodded toward Tifa.   
  
"Nice night for it," the man said, and then turned back to the magazine he held, the latest issue of "Timber Maniacs".   
  
Just outside the gargoyle-guarded front gate, Lucia paused. To the left, the two-lane road that ran in front of the Garden entered the parking garage; to the right it ran off westward toward the setting sun and Balamb. "So, do you want to follow the road or hoof it cross-country?"   
  
"Whichever is quicker," Cloud said. "We can handle anything that comes at us."   
  
"Follow me then," said Lucia brightly. She strolled away from the gate and down the asphalt stretch, followed by her new friends.   
  
The gently rolling landscape of the Alcauld Plains stretched all around them as they left Balamb Garden behind. The heady smells of grass, rich earth and wildflowers flowed around them as the breeze picked up. The plain stretched all the way to the southern coast of the island of Balamb, where the cliffs on the eastern side of the island gave way to broad flat beaches where Tifa had once run and played when she was a little girl. To the east and southwest were the forests that provided Balamb with timber -- but were also home to Balamb's strongest monster wildlife. Balamb itself lay some miles to the southwest, in a cove formed by a curve in the island's coast. The quartet followed the road for about a mile, then left its paved path and continued southwest when it turned more westerly.   
  
Tifa paused at the rounded crest of a hill and stretched her arms over her head, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. "It's so good to be back," she said.   
  
Vincent stopped beside her and observed the lay of the land from their vantage point. "I've never been on Balamb Island before, but I think I like it here. Everything's so much drier around Dollet..."   
  
"Wait until we get to town, said Tifa. "The ocean air should make you feel right at home, since Dollet's a seaside town."   
  
Vincent gave her words quiet thought as he walked after Lucia and Cloud. From everything Tifa had told him about Balamb, it was a quiet fishing town that occasionally acted as a launch point for SeeD ocean vessels. Its docking facilities were among the most well-maintained in the entire world; what they lacked in technology they made up in sturdiness and cleanliness. Tifa had always been proud when she talked about Balamb, and Vincent was glad to finally get a chance to see what made her smile when she thought of home.   
  
Ahead of him, Lucia and Cloud were walking side by side. She strolled easily, without a care in the world, but he maintained his usual vigilance -- vigilance that he had kept with every step outdoors since the encounter with the Mesmerizes in Trabia. Cloud turned to look back at Vincent, and in the instant that the blonde's hand flew to the handle of his sword Vincent knew there was trouble.   
  
In a well-practiced maneuver Vincent tumbled forward down the slope of the hill and snapped to his feet facing back the way he had come, Quicksilver drawn and ready. Tifa threw herself to the ground as a large blue insectoid creature with oversized pincers buzzed right through where her head had been. The creature continued on toward Vincent, who stepped back and tracked its motion. Vincent sighted along the barrel of his weapon and squeezed the trigger. A sharp cracking report, a flash and the creature spiraled out of control to hit the ground near Cloud and Lucia, twitching and bleeding. "Bite Bug," Lucia said as she knelt to examine the monster. "I didn't even hear it, Cloud. How did you know it was coming?"   
  
"I don't know," Cloud said. His knuckles were white as Trabian snow around the handle of his sword. "Sometimes I can just feel them." He kicked the still-warm corpse of the insect. "You all right, Tifa?" he called out.   
  
"I'm okay," Tifa called back as she brushed herself off. "I heard the thing just as you and Vincent turned around."   
  
Lucia turned a slow circle, her eyes searching the surrounding country. "Where there's one Bite Bug there might be more. We should keep moving."   
  
"I think you're r--" Vincent stopped speaking as a low, thrumming noise became apparent. "Too late. Tifa!" The dark-haired girl was already sprinting down the hill as he shouted her name.   
  
A swarm of eight of the clawed blue insects burst over the rise, intent on the foursome below. Vincent's Quicksilver barked three times; one of the beasts erupted into a cloud of blood and viscera. The rest kept coming, an implacable insectoid gale hell-bent on death, all snapping claws and buzzing fury. Cloud's steel flashed, slicing one of the creatures in twain. One of its fellows swiped at Cloud's extended arms; a long gash welled crimson. Cloud reversed his stroke, bringing the sword back around through where the source of his pain had been, but the monster had already moved.   
  
Thunder snapped through the buzz-filled air as Lucia brought her kinzoke-sensu into play. With movements almost quicker than the eye could follow she diced the bug in front of her. Sticky gore sprayed through the air, covering her fans and hands. The air behind her head vibrated with the thrum of an approaching monster and she ducked on instinct as it shot past.   
  
Vincent couldn't get a clear shot at any of the insects. With his free hand he reached out in a grasping motion, focusing his mind. To his sight the insect nearest to him began to glow with vibrating red and white energies. Vincent concentrated on the red and willed it to erupt around his enemy. A split second later fire exploded around the creature, incinerating its wings and scorching its carapace. It fell to the ground, thrashing in agony.   
  
Though she was surrounded by three of the blue-shelled creatures, Tifa wasn't concerned. Her fists flashed in a vicious one-two combination that cracked the carapace of a Bite Bug diving for an attack at her chest. The pulverized monster's course halted and it splattered to the grass. While her attention was diverted another moved in, its jagged claw ripping a slash across her forehead. Hot, salty blood streamed into Tifa's eyes and she fell back with a shout.   
  
Unseen by her blood-covered eyes, the bloody-clawed Bite Bug was speared by razor-sharp metal. Cloud swung his sword with adrenaline-boosted, rage-filled strength and flung the impaled creature at one of its brethren. The second monster dodged the corpse and was promptly quartered by Lucia's kinzoke-sensu. Another flash of fire seared the insect coming for Lucia's head.   
  
The lone remaining monster hesitated, suddenly surrounded by angry human adversaries. Tifa flung blood that she wiped from her eyes and clenched her fists so hard her knuckles popped, resounding off the metal of her gauntlets. "I hate you!" she screamed at the top of her voice. A dam broke wide open within her, and from somewhere deep inside power flooded outward. She leapt into blurred motion, slamming her fists and feet into the startled insect over and over, driving the body up into the air and back. It hovered, wobbling, as if to retreat, then dropped to the earth with a muted thud.   
  
Almost immediately Lucia began moving among the dead insects, prodding, poking and lifting with her folded fans. From several of the bodies she lifted tiny shimmering stones, stones that held minute amounts of magical potential. As she did this Vincent touched first Cloud, then Tifa and turned his mental focus inward. Within himself Vincent had stored magical energy with a healing resonance -- spells known as "Cure". He tapped this energy, "casting" the "spell" twice to heal his wounded companions. Within seconds the deep gashes were both completely healed with nary a scar to be seen.   
  
"I've never seen Bite Bugs in a swarm that big," observed Lucia. "Usually they come singly, or in groups of two or three or maybe even four, but never eight!"   
  
"Did we stumble onto a nest?" asked Cloud. The blonde flexed his arm, watching the muscles and tendons shift under his skin through the rip in his uniform jacket.   
  
Vincent shook his head, setting his raven locks lifting briefly in the breeze. "I don't think so. They came up the way we did, after us. If we'd come near a nest they would have stayed there to protect it."   
  
"I don't like this at all," said Tifa. In all the years Tifa had lived in Balamb, Bite Bugs had never been this vicious. Lucia was right; the insects didn't gather into groups as large as the one that had just assaulted them. "I think we should head back to the Garden and report this."   
  
Cloud still had not let go of his sword. He continued casting his gaze all about as if expecting another attack at any moment. "Maybe we should take a look around first."   
  
Though Vincent agreed with Cloud's idea he thought it more prudent to return to Balamb Garden to report the disturbance first. Perhaps they would be permitted to investigate this matter as a part of their training. After all, their final semester was supposed to include field training and this looked like a perfect opportunity to satisfy both academic requirements and personal curiosity at once. He said as much to the others and was especially glad when Cloud agreed without hesitation. Reversing their steps as the sun sank below the horizon, the quartet made their way back to Balamb Garden.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
Cloud had never had difficulty getting to sleep, even in a strange place. Balamb Garden wasn't all that different from Trabia overall, and the bed he lay on was comfortable. He knew he felt no anxiety over the coming first day of class, and he was intrigued by the evening's events rather than disturbed. *So why am I having so much trouble falling asleep?*  
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind was a seething cauldron of emotions long suppressed. Every day he fed anger, sadness and fear into that cauldron so that his mind would be clear and in control. Some day he would be free to let it all out. *Am I losing my grip? No, doesn't feel like that... Why did I act so weird today? And why didn't it bother me when I was doing it? Is it that girl, Lucia?*  
  
Thinking her name brought to mind her face. To be honest, he'd never really taken much notice of girls. Tifa was pretty, sure, and Instructor Trepe was a looker too, but there was something about the brightness of Lucia's smile, the way everything seemed to light up around her, that made the coffee-skinned girl stand out. *Tilmitt could take a few lessons from her about being cheerful without being annoying.*  
  
He rolled over onto his left side and punched his pillow twice, more to work off his irritation than to adjust the pillow's shape. *Maybe I should go to the Training Center and get in some practice... No, if I do that I'll be up all night. Unless I used a Sleep on myself... But then I might not get up in time for class in the morning. What time is it anyway?* Cloud rolled back over and took a glance at his clock, then wished he hadn't. One in the morning. This wasn't good.  
  
He started reciting random factoids to himself. The population of Timber at the last census; the name of the mayor from fifty-three years ago; Vincent's shoe size; Tifa's favorite color; maybe he should start playing Triple Triad...  
  
Somewhere in the litany he remembered where he was. Tifa was late. If anybody saw him sitting up on the water tower he was gonna get it. Where was she? Oh well. At least he had a good view tonight.  
  
It hadn't been an easy decision, despite his lack of ties. Well, except for his mom. But he'd show 'em. He was gonna be the best there ever was, just like...  
  
A noise. There was Tifa. He opened his mouth to speak but the world swirled away into the randomness of normal dreaming...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Early the next morning Quistis sat at her desk in her classroom on the second floor of Balamb Garden, checking her daily itinerary on the access panel. In a little over an hour she would be seeing Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart and Vincent Valentine for the first time. Try as she might, she couldn't find a way to justify altering the current seating arrangements. Two of the three newcomers would be stuck with Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy in the back of the room.   
  
Today's classes would involve Junctioning -- the mystic process of identification with a Guardian Force and its powers. More specifically this would be an advanced class that would explore the Junctioning of magical energies to one's own personal life force through the link with a GF, enhancing one's natural potential and granting magical protection and abilities. Successful use of Junctioning was one of SeeD's greatest advantages -- and one of its most difficult lessons.   
  
Indeed, this would be the class that would break the ones who had merely squeaked by so far. This lesson would enable the students to pass their qualifying field tests and succeed in the Field Exam final: a live-fire mission performed by SeeD cadets and evaluated by full SeeDs and Instructors. Without the knowledge of advanced Junctioning techniques the students would not pass and could not be admitted to SeeD.   
  
The sound of the classroom door opening dragged Quistis's attention from her panel. She looked up to see Raven entering, carrying a tray with two teacups and a ceramic pot of tea. "Good morning," said the brown-haired SeeD cheerfully.   
  
"Good morning, Raven," Quistis replied. Raven set the tray onto the desk and poured steaming tea into both cups, then handed one to Quistis. "Thank you. What brings you up here this morning?"   
  
Raven slid himself onto the desk, dangling his legs over the side. "All last night I kept wondering about what Cid told us, and what he wants us to do. Why are these three new students so special?"   
  
"Whenever Cid Kramer makes up his mind that someone is special," replied Quistis, "he brings all his resources to bear and won't take 'no' for an answer. There's got to be something special about Cloud Strife, and I've gotten to thinking that there's something special about Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart too."   
  
"I was wondering about that," Raven agreed. Last night Lucia had told Raven all about the day she had spent with the newcomers, and her observations of their relationships to each other. The girl had come to Raven's room just before curfew on the pretext of stopping by on her way to the Training Center for a late-evening workout. They had discussed Lucia's progress for a while, then drifted into talking about their dreams for the future. Lucia spoke of graduating, of a successful career in SeeD. Then she had begun regaling Raven with her tale of adventure. Raven listened patiently, absorbing every detail and doing his best to weed out any exaggeration. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Cid will tip his hand soon enough."   
  
*Before or after these students drive me up the wall, across the ceiling and back down again,* wondered Quistis. There didn't seem to be much else to say about the newcomers, and the two sat in companionable silence, sipping their tea. Quistis scanned her itinerary one last time and then accessed the Garden's virtual message board service. As usual the debate over the legendary Balamb Garden hot dogs raged strong, some students proclaiming the divinity of the lunch staple, others decrying their vileness. A boastful message from Seifer deigned to remind the other students of his place as head of the "disciplinary committee". The response to Seifer's digital swaggering lifted Quistis's eyebrows and made her look up at Raven. "Honestly, he needs to be brought down a few pegs, but 'bow-legged, bull-headed fool who can only dream of being a SeeD' is a bit harsh."   
  
"You think so?" her companion asked. He clearly didn't think he'd been anything of the sort.   
  
"Not really," said Quistis. She smirked around her teacup. "I've been dying to say just that very thing in class."   
  
"Now, now," Raven chided, "no harboring uncharitable thoughts about a student."   
  
Quistis shook her head, her long blonde bangs that were so carefully combed to either side of her face swinging. "Harboring? I'm not just harboring them, I'm building them. Regardless, today is going to be quite an adventure. Like I needed any more adventure, I'm up to my ears in it already."   
  
The SeeD touched his friend on the shoulder and squeezed gently. "Have a little fun with it. You'll do fine." Raven flashed a winning smile to Quistis and withdrew his hand, sliding off the desk. "I have to go," he said as he picked up the tray. "I'll talk to you at lunch, okay?"   
  
Quistis nodded mutely as she watched Raven glide from the classroom. They had been great friends for years; he'd taught her how to play Triple Triad and learned to regret it. She'd danced with him at a private party in his quarters after his graduation. Despite their age differences -- Raven was three years older -- they'd always been close and treated each other as equals. Was that why his eyes lingered on her, why he would sneak in a gentle, reassuring touch every so often? Or was there something else? Was she making more of it than it was?  
  
No time for that. She still hadn't resolved the seating arrangement problem. "Damn," she muttered as she turned her attention back to the study panel. How to resolve this? Whoever she sat with Seifer would be continually distracted by the young man's bravado and bluster. Whoever she sat with Squall would probably wind up shivering. The two things Quistis knew she could not do were to put Tifa with Seifer and Cloud with Squall. She also reasoned that putting Cloud with Seifer would be akin to making Squall move across the aisle to join his fellow "gunblade cowboy". That left the unfortunate Vincent to sit with Seifer, which in turn left Tifa to sit with Squall and Cloud to sit in the seat just to the front, next to Wimbley Donner.   
  
With that finally settled Quistis had overcome the first obstacle of the day. She drank the last sip of tea from her cup, savoring the light taste of honey. Raven had such a way with the small things in life...  
  
The time passed uneventfully. Students began filing in on schedule, taking their seats and chatting among themselves. When three students Quistis didn't recognize entered together with Lucia Seagill she knew the newcomers had arrived. Quistis waved the trio over to her desk and pointed out their seats, then asked them to remain with her until class began.   
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Quistis saw Squall Leonhart slinking into the classroom, avoiding all eye contact. "Squall," she called. The leather-jacketed young man stopped, turned and stared blankly at her. "Come here for a second, please."   
  
Tifa watched the handsome, silent stranger approach the Instructor's desk and was forcefully reminded of Cloud, who stood behind her, silently appraising the other student. Squall's thick shag of dark chestnut hair hung without a seeming care in the world, framing his startlingly icy blue eyes and strong face. He radiated unfeeling control in a cold circle around himself. He didn't speak a word when the Instructor introduced him to Tifa, who would sit next to him for the term, and he only nodded when Tifa extended a hand. Then he walked off, leaving Tifa to stare at his back.   
  
"Looks like somebody you could hold a conversation with, eh, Cloud?" Vincent quipped. Cloud turned an icy glare on his friend. Quistis swallowed a laugh.   
  
The next student to arrive was a small young man with short, neat brown hair, gold-rimmed spectacles that rested on a round nose and cheeks that were flushed from running. "Oh, good, I'm not late," he proclaimed to no one in particular as he stepped into the classroom. Quistis caught him on his way past the desk.   
  
"Wimbley Donner, this is your new seat-mate Cloud Strife. Cloud, this is Wimbley. He's the Festival organizer for Balamb Garden. Perhaps you could give him a hand this term?" the Instructor said. Cloud gave Vincent a pointed stare before extending his hand to the boy. Wimbley blinked, then took the hand hesitantly. Cloud gripped the boy's hand firmly, shook it, then let go and nodded once.   
  
"Uh, nice to meet you," Wimbley stammered. "I'll tell you about the Festivals during break, maybe you'd like to sign up?" The small boy smiled and walked away. Cloud shook his head and sighed. He just wasn't feeling like his regular self. *I wonder if it has anything to do with that dream...*  
  
A minute passed, then two. Quistis glanced at her clock and smirked. The bell would be ringing in thirty seconds, which meant Seifer Almasy would appear in twenty-nine. Sure enough, the imposing gray trenchcoat and blonde buzz-cut walked into the classroom just before the bell sounded to begin the day. "Cutting it fine, Mister Almasy," said Quistis. One of these days she'd see about recommending to Cid that students arrive five minutes before class started.   
  
"You know me, Teach. Like to live on the edge." Seifer strolled up to the desk and leaned on it, his black-gloved hands gripping the edge. "Maybe I could demonstrate for you sometime."   
  
The Instructor's blue eyes rolled in exasperation. "Save it, Almasy. Meet your new seat-mate, Vincent Valentine. Vincent, this is Seifer Almasy. Try not to let him distract you."   
  
Vincent smiled winningly and held out his hand to the young man he would be spending the term with. Never make an enemy where you can make a friend, Frederick had told him long ago. Seifer ignored the hand and stared at Vincent for a moment before saying, "Just don't get in my way and we'll be fine. I'm the head of the disciplinary committee, you know."   
  
"Yes, Seifer and his friends Fujin and Raijin keep order around here. It's a shame they don't cary notepads, they forget how I like my sandwiches." Quistis folded her arms across her chest and glared at Seifer. "Get to your seat so we can start the day, please."   
  
Seifer flashed a mocking salute to the Instructor and walked away slowly, his hands in the pockets of his long coat. Tifa, Vincent and Cloud looked at each other with knowing expressions. This one was going to be trouble. "You gonna be okay with that jerk next to you?" Tifa asked.   
  
Vincent nibbled on his bottom lip as he thought through the possibilities. If Vincent didn't push, Seifer was likely to leave him alone. "Yeah, I'll be all right. Maybe he'll warm up."   
  
"I doubt it," said Cloud under his breath.   
  
"Really," Quistis said to them in a low tone, "if there were any other seats at all I'd have given them to you, but this was all I could do. If you have any problems, just let me know and I'll try harder to think of something." The students nodded their acknowledgement and the Instructor stepped away from her desk into full view of the class. "Good morning, everyone. We have some new students today, transfers from Trabia Garden. I'd like you to welcome Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart." A round of greetings, some heartfelt, some cursory, flowed through the room. "Like some of you, they're in their last term as students. I'm hoping they'll set a good example for those who are following." Quistis smiled to the newcomers and said, "Take your seats, please."   
  
As they walked down the center aisle between the study stations Vincent observed the faces of his new classmates. He recognized a few of them from the tour Lucia had given yesterday. Lucia herself gave them all small wave and added a wink for Cloud; Cloud completely ignored it.   
  
The study panels were exactly the same as the ones in Trabia Garden. Tifa, Cloud and Vincent logged in with the rest of the class and the day began. Today's class on Junctioning would occupy most of the morning.   
  
The concepts were simple -- to those who had completed the lesson. Through a Guardian Force, para-magical energy could be linked to a particular aspect of one's being. For example, certain GF's could link, or Junction, to physical power. Through this link, spells stored within a person's own energy pattern could be integrated with one's strength, enhancing muscle power. The greater quantity and higher energy level of the spells, the greater the increase. Drawing and storing the finite quanta of para-magical energy that made up spells had been the direct prerequisite for this lesson   
  
Somewhat rarer Junctions allowed certain types of magic to be linked to a person's combat abilities, either protecting from certain types of attacks or allowing that person to inflict magical attacks in combination with physical ones. "Elemental" Junctions could protect from such things as fire attacks, lightning bolts, earth slams, tearing winds and ice blasts, or grant the person's attacks those same qualities. Other magic types, including poison spells, sleep spells, time-manipulation spells and blinding spells, could be Junctioned to grant their powers to attacks or to protect against those same types.   
  
Not every spell type was effective in every type of Junction. Attack magics, such as the spells known as Fire, Blizzard and Thunder, were effective in enhancing strength and speed as well as the "Elemental" Junctions. Curative and restorative magics were most effective in enhancing physical health and resistance. Time-magics were effective at enhancing raw speed and accuracy.   
  
The sheer volume of information presented in one class had Vincent rubbing his temples by the time the Instructor called a break, and it wasn't over yet. After the break would come transferal of para-magical energy from one person to another, "trading spells" back and forth. Though he had heard of the technique, Vincent had never found an occasion to try it with Tifa or Cloud. A slow creeping dread began working its way up his spine when he realized Instructor Trepe would probably pair off each student with his or her seat-mate for the practice, which would mean he would have to deal with the arrogant, sprawling Seifer. On the excuse of stretching his legs he stood and stepped across the aisle to Tifa's seat. "You catch all that?"   
  
She nodded, though she was frowning. "I think I did. I read a little about it back at Trabia, but I put it out of my mind until this morning when Lucia told me what we would be covering today."   
  
To Tifa's left, Squall was staring at his study panel, seemingly without seeing anything at all. Vincent considered saying something to the other young man, but after a few seconds decided against it. Instead he looked to the seat in front of Tifa's. Cloud was making a show of listening to Wimbley as the small boy rambled about the Garden Festival.   
  
"...I'm hoping the next Festival will be the best yet. I've really been putting everything I've got into it. Really means a lot to me." Wimbley's head bobbed excitedly as he spoke. His enthusiasm for the Festival couldn't be doubted. Vincent wondered if Wimbley had as much enthusiasm for his studies.   
  
Tifa stretched her arms over her head, her fingers interlaced, and yawned expansively. This afternoon's physical training was going to be a blessing after this class period. "You have any plans for this evening?" she asked.   
  
Vincent shook his head and turned his attention from Cloud and Wimbley. "No, none at all. You?"   
  
"Not a thing," said Tifa. "Maybe we can try to get to know some more people."   
  
"I think Lucia could help us with that," Vincent told her.   
  
A few minutes later Quistis called for the students to return to their seats and began the next portion of the class. Much to Vincent's relief the Instructor mixed up pairings for the initial exchange lesson, matching Vincent with Lucia and Cloud with Tifa. He quickly made a mental note to thank Quistis after class for that kindness. Lucia's vibrant energy lifted Vincent's spirits, taking away the drumming in his head and turning the building information overload into a wide-open opportunity for fun.   
  
Quistis covered the steps she wanted the students to take for their first transfer, including mnemonic and somatic devices designed to increase their confidence. As they listened Vincent and Lucia linked hands and reached back into their minds to make contact with their Guardian Forces, whose aid was vital to the lesson.   
  
At first the transfer of energy was startling. Inside himself, Vincent could always sense the magical power as a pulse matching his own, familiar and comfortable. The sudden diversion of that pulse, the sensation of it flowing out of him, shocked him the first time he allowed a Cure spell to flow into Lucia. His eyes, closed to allow him to fully concentrate on the raport necessary for the transfer, flew open to take in the beaming smile on Lucia's face.  
  
Lucia's eyes opened at the sound of his intake of breath. "Is something wrong, Vincent? It felt like it worked to me."   
  
"It... It worked, yes," Vincent stammered.   
  
"Want to try again?" Lucia asked. "I'll pass the Cure back to you."   
  
From the receiving end, the transfer seemed to be quite like the Storing variant of the Draw technique. The spell, that para-magical pattern that would heal wounds, filtered into Vincent's being and joined with the similar energy already present.   
  
For the rest of the class, Quistis set the student pairs to experimenting with Junctioning and transfering in quantities, encouraging them to witness firsthand the effects of transfering Junctioned spells. Tifa thought she saw Cloud smile, just a fraction, when she passed him Fire spells after he had Junctioned his own to his physical strength.   
  
Two hours later, the class period was over and it was time for lunch. At the door, Cloud pulled Vincent aside. The blonde waited until most of the other students had left the classroom, the remainder clustered in small groups of their own, before asking, "Have you noticed anything... unusual... about Lucia?"   
  
"Like what?" asked Vincent.   
  
"You said I was acting strange yesterday, and last night I had trouble getting to sleep. Then I had a really bizarre dream, and this morning I woke up in the weirdest mood I've ever felt."   
  
Vincent scratched his head. Cloud wasn't known for exaggerating, and he certainly wouldn't invent a story like this. "I didn't get anything weird from her when we were transfering spells, but I'll keep an eye out."  
  
"I'd appreciate that," said Cloud. "I'd like to know I'm not crazy."   
  
"Of course you're crazy," Vincent told him. "You hang around me, right?" The dark-haired cadet nudged his friend's arm and tilted his head to the door. "Let's go get some food, I'm starving."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
The noonday sun transformed the rolling ocean into an aquamarine jewel, igniting the shallow waters of Balamb Bay with a glistening inner fire. Above those waters, from a second story balcony of the Balamb Hotel, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a cleanly shaven head and dark glasses on his face looked out over the ocean. His bronzed skin was warmed by the sunshine as he leaned against the railing, silently observing the fishing boats out in the bay.   
  
"Come on, Rude." The words floated out from the hotel room the man shared with his two associates. Victor Rude turned his head slightly to the right, annoyed by the interruption of his peace.   
  
Niles Reno, a flamboyant, russet-haired man who wore his navy blue suit jacket hanging open and his white dress shirt untucked and partially unbuttoned, stepped out from the room and sprawled against the railing. He, too, wore sunglasses, but the gold-rimmed shades rested atop his head for the moment. "What do you do out here, anyway?"   
  
"I think," said Rude. It was as much as he said most times. Reno did enough talking for himself and Rude both, with a good deal of their third partner's share in addition.   
  
Reno sniffed once, loudly, and kept his nose wrinkled in disgust. "Stinks like fish everywhere you go in this lousy town."   
  
"Watch your mouth," a voice advised. Elena Mitchell, Reno and Rude's young partner, looked up from adjusting her uniform jacket in the round mirror that stood atop the oak dresser. "We're supposed to be here to help these people with those very same fish."   
  
"This whole thing stinks!" Reno declared. He shoved himself off the railing and stalked back into the room. "Our cover is crap and takes more of our time than our mission does, there isn't a single place to get a decent beer this side of Deling City, and I'm sick to death of fish!"   
  
"The Deling Commonwealth Foundation is very concerned with aiding the residents of Balamb. That's our cover, and I think it's a pretty good one. I'm still convinced the problems with the Balamb-fish are related to what we're really doing here," said the woman. She ran a hand through her carefully-trimmed, lemon-colored hair and sighed.   
  
"You don't need to remind me of our cover or our mission, Mitchell," said Reno. He threw himself on one of the room's beds, landing with a squeaky bounce, and stared at the ceiling. "Remember, you're the newcomer here. Rude and I have been at this for years."   
  
Elena smirked in derision. She couldn't stand Niles Reno, and she couldn't understand how the man had risen as high as he had in Matrix, the covert intelligence and troubleshooting organization that employed the three of them. Reno was a playboy, and not a very attractive one at that to Elena's eyes. Victor Rude, with all his stony silence, was much more a man. Rude was focused where Reno was bellicose. Rude was forceful where Reno was beligerent. Rude was also more experienced, having been with Matrix two years longer than Reno. Elena was a new recruit, on her first mission. Her superiors had expressed an interest in her capabilities and paired her with two of the top field agents. This would be the trial by fire that would burn her way to the top, or incinerate her.   
  
The trio of agents were in Balamb ostensibly as representatives of the Deling Commonwealth Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities improve their lot through coordinated work. As DCF reps their job was to help Balamb increase its production of the world-renowned Balamb-fish through conservation techniques that would hopefully combat the steady disappearance of the Balamb-fish schools.   
  
What Elena Mitchell, Victor Rude and Niles Reno were really doing in Balamb was another matter entirely. As agents of Matrix, Vinzer Deling's personal spy network designed to help maintain his stranglehold on Galbadia and combat SeeD's growing influence and strength, they were on the trail of a genetic scientist who had escaped from a Galbadian research lab with sensitive, dangerous secrets.   
  
Elena's private suspicion was that their cover would prove more useful than Reno could possibly imagine. The decline in the Balamb-fish population wasn't an accident. If she could figure out what was really causing the fish to disappear at such an alarming rate, she was positive it would lead her to the missing scientist.   
  
"Anyway," continued Reno as he lay upon the bed, "we need to get moving. If we're late to our first meeting with the town council..."   
  
"They'll wait," said Rude as he turned from the railing and walked back into the room. "We're more important to them than anything else right now."   
  
Elena gave Rude a thoughtful look. "Even if we aren't who we say we are?"   
  
"We are," said Rude, "and we aren't. You studied the files you were given, right?" He refered to the lessons each of the three Matrix agents had been given to prepare them for this mission, which briefed them on the techniques the DCF would employ.   
  
"Of course," said Elena. "I even took the time to study the topic a little more deeply before we left Deling City." To ensure she was prepared, Elena had spent all of her free time after being given the assignment studying the ecology of the Balamb-fish, the history and geography of the town of Balamb and of Balamb Bay, and the use of the very techniques the DCF would put into play to help the fish that were this town's sole claim to fame.   
  
Rude turned his covered eyes to Reno. Rude didn't really expect that Niles Reno had bothered to study the files. When the flame-haired man tilted his head up and glared at Rude, saying, "Yes, I read the blasted files," Rude shook his head slightly. Will wonders never cease? he thought.   
  
Outside the front doors of the Balamb Hotel Reno flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes. He much prefered to work at night, he always had. As he stepped away from the hotel and began following the curving, sloped road that dropped away to his left and led toward the docks, Reno swore to himself that after this mission was over he was going to take all of the vacation time he had saved up and spend it all in Deling City, hitting each and every single bar, tavern and inn, staying up all night and sleeping all day.   
  
The road straightened out behind the hotel and descended toward the beach and the docks. The town council, two men and one woman, were already waiting in the dock's small parking lot. When the shortest of the trio, a portly brown-haired, middle-aged man, saw Elena, Reno and Rude approaching he waved a stubby arm and called out to them. "Ho! Good of you to make it!"   
  
"Good morning," said Rude, as he was posing as his trio's leader. "Is the craft ready?"   
  
The rotund man nodded and waved a chubby hand toward an open motor launch berthed below. "Everything is ready to go."   
  
The shaven-headed man nodded once and began walking away, followed by Reno, Elena and the council. They boarded the small craft and made their way out over the calm waters of the bay. The short, round man, whose name was Richard Morton if Elena remembered correctly, made only one attempt at conversation, unfortunately choosing to speak to Reno. Reno stared at Morton for several seconds before the councilman blinked, smiled nervously and looked away.   
  
For the next three hours the council members watched silently as the three agents familiarized themselves with the geography of Balamb Bay, testing their library-based knowledge. Privately, they were scanning for traces of genetic material similar to certain patterns that had been stolen from the Deling City lab in addition to tracking the movements of Balamb-fish schools, shallow-water predators and water currents. It wasn't until the craft had been returned to the dock and the council members had returned to their homes that Reno looked to Rude and asked, "Did I see what I thought I did out there?"   
  
The bald man nodded, a grim scowl on his face. "Yes. Mitchell was right."   
  
Elena couldn't help the smile that curled her lips, both at Rude's confirmation of her correct guess and at Reno's snarl. "So what now?"   
  
Rude was silent for a moment, staring out over the bay once more. What now, indeed... "I want to gather more data before making any further moves." Traces of the stolen patterns had been detected on the floor of the bay. The next step was two-fold: to obtain a sample from the bay, which would require a dive, and to patrol the coast around the bay to ascertain if any other patterns would match. "Since you've got seniority, Reno, I'll even let you decide if you want to get wet or take a hike."   
  
Reno barked a short, acidic laugh and ran a hand through his flame-colored hair. "I'll let you and Blondie here play with the fish."   
  
"All right, then. Take a pattern scanner and get a five-kilometer radius reading. You'll probably want to rent a car." Rude turned to Elena, who was still smiling. "Ever been diving?"   
  
The young woman's smile grew. "Every summer for most of my life. When do we leave?"   
  
"Right now." Rude looked to Reno, who rolled his eyes and began walking back to the hotel. "Come on, Mitchell."   
  
Elena shook her head as her tall partner brushed past her. She had insisted that they call her by her given name, but they wouldn't do it. Sometimes she wondered if Reno and Rude even remembered their own first names.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
As the door to the training gym hissed open it revealed a lanky blonde in denim shorts and a white cotton tank-top assaulting a hanging punching bag. The bag's chains rattled with each violent, thudding strike of the young man's fists. As Tifa watched from just inside the door, the strikes became faster and harder until she could barely follow the other's movements. He used no established style; his frenetic whirling and flashing motions were like a strange, energetic combination of jiujutsu, tae kwon do, sport-boxing and capoeira-dancing that were blended into a new whole.   
  
With a loud shout that resounded through the gym the young man delivered a spinning backfist to the bag, sending it flying in a wide arc. He caught the bag, stood motionless for a moment, then blew out an extended exhale and smiled to Tifa. "Hey," he said. "You here to train?"   
  
"Yeah." Tifa patted the bag that she carried, which held her workout clothes. Vincent was on the firearms range and SeeD Argent said he wanted to see what Cloud could do in a one-on-one session, so she was here alone. "You're pretty good. I didn't recognize your style."   
  
"Aw, it's just somethin' I put together. Kinda my own thing." He stepped away from the bag and walked across the mats to her, extending his right hand. "I'm Zell."   
  
"Tifa," she said as she took his hand in a firm grip. "Hey, you're from Balamb, right?"   
  
"Oh, yeah," Zell concurred. He nodded enthusiastically. "My ma lives there. You from Balamb too?"   
  
"Yes." She released Zell's hand.   
  
"Hey, all right!" Zell exploded, momentarily startling Tifa. "This is really cool!"   
  
She blinked once, looked around the gym and wondered if perhaps Zell had eaten a little too much sugar for lunch. She spotted the door to the women's locker room and found the perfect excuse to get some space from her hyperactive new acquaintance. "I'm gonna go change."   
  
"That's cool. I'll drill with ya after ya warm up," stated Zell.   
  
Tifa wanted to groan, but she bit it back and nodded. The door to the locker room gave her passage and closed behind her, affording her a minute to shake her head in amazement.   
  
When she emerged from the locker room a few minutes later dressed in her loose workout shorts and tank-top, Zell dropped from a handstand he had been maintaining while kicking at the bag. "Ready to warm up?" he asked. Tifa nodded and moved to the sparring mat at center of the room to begin her stretching routine. Zell began walking around the gym, bobbing and weaving and throwing punch combinations at the air. "Is it really as cold up in Trabia as they say?" he asked her as he continued his circuit.   
  
"Pretty much, yeah," said Tifa. She swung her arms in wide circles, loosening her shoulders. "Summer's short, but it's a nice break from the cold. The winter is kinda nasty though. You learn to like snow, or live with it."   
  
Zell flipped to his hands and began "walking" toward her. When he reached the sparring mat he dropped forward, tucked, rolled and ended up sitting across from her. "Heard there's some pretty mean monsters up that way."   
  
Tifa smiled. Even though he seemed to have enough energy for three people, this young man was already growing on her. "Mesmerizes aren't so bad if you're careful. It's the Snow Lions you need to look out for," she told him as she sat on the mat and stretched her legs out in a "V". She exhaled and reached out to take her right foot in her hands, stretching her lower back. After a count of ten she sat back up. "There's a forest north of Trabia Garden where you can see Chocobos. It's really pretty and peaceful there. It's worth the walk from the Garden, at least to me." Then she exhaled again, leaned over and took her other foot into her hands. After another ten count she sat up and wiggled her feet. "Cloud and Vincent always went there with me. Cloud didn't say much about it, but I think he liked it to."   
  
"Who're they?" Zell asked as he stretched his arms over his head.   
  
"Oh, they're my best friends in the entire world. They were in class today. I'll introduce you to them tomorrow."   
  
Zell grinned and rolled over backward, then snapped to his feet. "I can't wait to tell Ma I met somebody from Balamb. She'll say somethin' like 'That's very nice, dear, why don't you bring her by?' or somethin' like that."   
  
"We tried to walk to Balamb yesterday," Tifa said without thinking, "but we got jumped by a bunch of Bite Bugs. Cloud got his arm hurt, but Lucia fixed it with a Cure spell." Only when the words were out of her mouth did she wonder if she should be mentioning the incident. Too late now, she thought wryly. It'll probably be all over Balamb Garden soon.   
  
"Bite Bugs?" Zell exclaimed. "They ain't nothin' to be afraid of."   
  
"So I've been told," said Tifa. "So I've been told." She got to her feet and began touching her toes, then did a series of jumping jacks. When she was done, she rolled her head and began considering a series of drills for the day.   
  
While she was thinking, Zell walked back to the bag. "You worked with your Limit skill yet?"   
  
"Yeah," Tifa admitted. "I broke through one day when I went out walking and got surprised by a couple of really mean Mesmerizes. They caught me by surprise and beat me up pretty bad. I thought I was done for, and then I felt this really hot power coming up from my belly, you know, the solar plexus chakra. I started beating on the one closest to me, and everything I did was amplified. I didn't know what happened until I told an Instructor about it." When she looked over, Zell was staring at her. "What?"   
  
"That is so weird," he said. "It was just like that for me. I was in the Training Center and I got in over my head with a T-Rexaur. I thought it was gonna turn me into lunch, but then there was this flash in front of my eyes and I just started jammin' on its ugly snout, screamin' the whole time. When I came out of it the thing was layin' on the ground with a buncha broken teeth and missin' an eye."   
  
"A T-Rexaur? Aren't those things really super deadly?" Tifa asked in amazement.   
  
Zell nodded emphatically. "Uh-huh. I couldn't believe I was alive. I spent the next whole week, like, thinkin' I was really dead and in some kinda freaky afterlife. I found out later a couple of SeeDs had moved in and started poundin' on the T-Rexaur too, and that's why I was still alive." He chuckled and shrugged. "But I learned my Limit skill."   
  
For the next hour, Tifa and Zell worked through elementary punching and kicking drills. The basics, Tifa always said, were the most important aspect of any art, be it martial or cultural. They moved on to flips, holds and immobilizations, and then decided to spar a round or three to finish the day.   
  
After bowing to each other and taking up ready stances, they closed and the mock combat began. Zell's unorthodox style threw Tifa completely off balance for the first few minutes. Only her own skill kept her from being slammed to the mat immediately. She decided to loosen up and begin mixing styles, a little judo here, a little Crane kung fu there, a bit of sport boxing for spice. Soon she and Zell were both laughing and taunting each other as they moved from one end of the mat to the other. He caught a kick aimed at his midsection, she ducked a roundhouse that would have surely knocked her into next week. She flipped him over her shoulder, he caught her arm and continued the motion, dragging her down and rolling to his feet. They didn't notice they had an audience until the spectator began to applaud.   
  
Tifa's fist stopped a hair's breadth short of Zell's nose. He stared at it for a moment, then turned to look at the source of the clapping. "Eep!" he exclaimed.   
  
"I'm impressed," said the SeeD. She was petite and trim, with exotic almond-shaped eyes and rich brown hair cut to her jawline. "You've both got great form and speed, and your control is exemplary." At these words, Tifa retracted her extended arm as if reminded of its presence. "Think either of you might be up to giving me a challenge?"   
  
Zell didn't answer right away, so Tifa took up the gauntlet. "Sure, I can."   
  
"Pretty sure of yourself," said the SeeD. It was not an insult or insinuation, but an observation of Tifa's certainty.   
  
Tifa shrugged a bit. "Do, or don't. Trying is a waste of time."   
  
Now where had she heard that before? The small woman smiled and nodded. This was going to prove interesting. "Let's get to it, then. I'm Xu Kazeno, by the way."  
  
"Cadet Tifa Lockheart. Pleased to meet you, SeeD Kazeno."  
  
"Likewise."   
  
The next twenty minutes would stick with Tifa for days in the form of bruises and sore muscles. Xu was never where Tifa thought she would be, and that misjudgement always resulted in Tifa lying flat on her back on the mat. Time and again Xu would knock her down and back away, standing with a nonchalant smile and waiting for the cadet to get to her feet. Though she tried to remember that this was an important lesson, Tifa felt her frustration building. By the time Xu caught Tifa's fist in one hand and said, "I think that's enough for today," Tifa was ready to clean the woman's clock -- if she could connect.   
  
Xu moved her hand from Tifa's fist to the younger woman's upper arm. "Don't be discouraged. Zell can't even last ten minutes with me yet." She ignored Zell's embarrassed groan and continued, "As I said your form and speed are wonderful. The problem is you're concentrating too much on attacking and counter-attacking. Sometimes a good defense is your best offense."   
  
"I'll remember that," said Tifa. The anger that had been rising began to drain away. Xu wasn't an enemy; she was a friend, and a teacher who had many good lessons to pass on. Tifa resolved to look forward to training with Xu and to all the bumps and bruises that would mean.   
  
"You look like you could use showers," Xu told them, "and then some dinner. I'm headed that way myself, maybe I'll see you there." The SeeD walked away.  
  
Tifa stood where she was for a few seconds, watching Xu walk into the locker room. Zell approached her and shook his head. "Man, that was somethin'."   
  
"Yeah, she really whipped me good," Tifa sighed.   
  
Zell stared at her. "You made her sweat," he informed Tifa.   
  
"So?"   
  
Zell shook his head and walked away, saying, "I can't do that to her."   
  
Tifa found herself pondering those words for some time.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
It was a wonderful afternoon outside Balamb Garden's walls. A light breeze stirred from the west and birds sang cheerfully as they rode the gently bobbing tree branches. There was no way Raven was going to keep the cadets cooped up inside, not when he could get them out here for practice.  
  
Cloud's immaculate Hardedge shone in the sun as he slid easily through basic katas, demonstrating control, precision and speed. Raven watched the cadet attentively. Strife's form was incredible, beyond anything a young man of his age should have been able to achieve. Definitely beyond Leonhart and Almasy... and very likely better than Raven himself. It was disconcerting. *So this was what the Headmaster meant,* the brunette SeeD thought. *Who's training whom here, again?*  
  
The blonde cadet returned to center and resheathed the Galbadian blade. "Why can't you two look that good?" the SeeD said offhandedly in the direction of Squall and Seifer. Almasy was lounging indolently under a tree, sprawled atop his omnipresent gray longcoat. Leonhart, naked to the waist, was practicing feints with a bokken. Squall didn't rise to the challenge, continuing with his practice, but the close-cropped blonde sneered.  
  
"Why should I waste my time showing off for you? I got better things to do."  
  
"Yeah, like blow a lot of hot air." Even SeeDs were vulnerable to occasional fits of pique, and one settled on Raven at that moment. He snatched up the scabbarded nagamaki that stood propped against a small boulder next to him and drew the polearm-sword. "Feel like a little light sparring, Mister Strife?"  
  
Cloud glanced from the SeeD to his fellow cadet under the tree and back. *Great. I'm about to get my ass kicked from here to Esthar and this Almasy character's gonna have a mad on for me anyway. Thanks a lot, SeeD Argent.* "Sure."  
  
The SeeD lifted his weapon's lightly-curved blade skyward in a salute, then settled into a relaxed ready stance. He had the advantage of surprise. The cadet hadn't seen his form and didn't know what to expect. With the rarity of nagamaki across the world it was doubtful Strife had ever seen even one.  
  
That didn't seem to make much difference. The cadet leapt across the intervening space and pushed the point of his Hardedge at Raven in a controlled thrust. The SeeD beat it aside and upward with a sweeping circular parry as he stepped to his right. Cloud withdrew and began to circle. He tried stepping in again and was forced back. He knew he had to get inside the nagamaki's range before he could do anything; the question became how to do that, now that surprise was lost. Argent could afford to wait all day, playing defensively the entire time. There had to be a way inside that range.  
  
He pushed in again with another thrust, but this time as the SeeD's blade came around Cloud set his feet and let the point of his sword drop into a dangerous vertical block, arresting the movement of the nagamaki. He then pushed, shoving the polearm back and surprising Raven. Taking advantage of the moment Cloud closed the gap, bringing the Hardedge up in a diagonal slash. The SeeD fell back in an attempt to open up the range again, only to be pressed by the cadet once more.  
  
*Damn, he's good!* Raven thought as he reversed the grip of his right hand on his weapon and grasped the bottom edge of the handle with the left. A sharp twist and that bottom segment came free, revealing an attached single-edged shortsword that just barely deflected the Hardedge as Cloud pressed his attack once more.  
  
Now the advantage had swung back to Raven. Cloud found himself parrying both blades as the SeeD advanced with a whirlwind of slashes. If he didn't do something about that shorter blade soon the SeeD's speed was going to be the end of it. Parry, riposte, barely sidestep the return stroke. Cloud's backward movement had ceased, and he tried pushing his luck a little. He smacked the SeeD's longer blade away with the flat of his Hardedge, then risked opening himself by raising it overhead and bringing it down with a loud yell.  
  
Raven went to one knee and brought both blades up in an X, catching the Hardedge at the juncture with a resounding ring of steel on steel. If not for the Blizzard spells he had Junctioned to his strength, the cadet's blade would have pushed downward and cloven his skull. Raven grunted under the force of the impact and exhaled through his teeth in a forceful hiss. Cloud was still pressing down, trying to keep him pinned rather than attempting to finish things.  
  
*In a real battle he would have kicked me in the gut by now,* Raven thought as he began pushing up with his propped leg and forward with his blades. If he could get the Hardedge up far enough he could slip his shortsword free and give the cadet a little scratch for his efforts. *No kid that age should be this good.*  
  
"Lookin' a little beat down there, Raven," Seifer taunted. "Want some help?"  
  
*I hate that guy already,* thought Cloud. The SeeD was slowly getting to his feet, but Cloud saw where Raven's intentions lay and released his pressure. He took three paces back and brought himself back into a ready stance.  
  
Raven had seen enough, however. "Not usually politic for the teacher to admit that he's impressed, but that was definitely something to see. You're a real piece of work, Strife." He returned the smaller blade to its hiding place and saluted once more.  
  
Cloud shook his head a fraction and frowned. That had been happening more and more. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Almasy scowling and attempting to hide it behind a sneer. Doubtless he'd try to prove himself at some point to assuage his ego.  
  
Throughout the whole demonstration Squall had not stopped his practice. *I hope I didn't come across like that.* Cloud began to wonder if this new outlook that had suddenly sprung upon him in the past day and a half might not be a good thing after all.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Niles Reno pulled the sky-blue four-wheel-drive truck he had rented off to the side of the winding road that led away from Balamb. The tires crunched the gravel of the shoulder, then sprayed it in all directions as he skidded to a stop. Reno threw the door open and clambered out, holding his genetic pattern scanner in his right hand. There was definitely a reading here. The unit couldn't give him an exact location or distance, but the reading was on the south side of the road. Reno walked around to the front of the idling truck and waved the scanner in a slow arc from one horizon to the other.   
  
After a few moments, the scanner identified the pattern reading as coming from a copse of trees two hundred meters to the southeast. So... the Doctor had been in this area, for certain. Reno cursed Vinzer Deling and his orders that the Matrix agents not be told which specific genetic patterns they were searching for. Reno cursed Vinzer Deling long and hard. This would be so much easier if he could just identify which pattern had been used. He could even move in and correct the mistake -- if it wasn't too dangerous. But no, High and Mighty President Deling didn't want the agents knowing things he thought they shouldn't. Paranoid bastard was probably afraid of the Matrix agents going rogue and selling the information to the highest bidder.   
  
It wasn't worth going to the copse and looking around. For all he knew, he could end up as something's dinner. No, Reno decided he'd just go back and tell Rude that he'd found something and listen to the bald man bitch at him for an hour afterward. All he really wanted was a good, cold beer.   
  
Reno deactivated the pattern scanner and turned to walk back to the driver's side door of the truck. For a second he thought the engine was making a strange buzzing noise, but when he stopped to really listen to it, the sound was gone. Oh well... it was the rental place's problem, not his. He continued around and yanked the door open.   
  
The sound came again, louder this time. Reno leaned over to stare at the hood of the truck in irritation. A flash of motion from beyond the truck caught his eye. He lifted his gaze, and his eyes widened. Reno stumbled backward, his hands flicking outward. Two pieces of slightly-tapering metallic rod dropped from his sleeves into his palms. He snapped them together, end-to-end, into one longer rod and thumbed a small button at the wide end. The rod began emitting a pulsing hum.   
  
Reno had no time to level his Electromag Rod and fire a charge into the oncoming swarm of gigantic blue insects. He threw himself to the ground and rolled under the truck as they buzzed past. He thought he had seen three, perhaps four of the monsters, but it sounded like there were a hundred of them. The truck rocked above him several times, and a horrid shrieking of metal being bent and torn wailed over the still-droning engine. The truck rocked again, more violently. This was definitely not good.   
  
Reno's mind whirled as he tried to run through the possible scenarios. The monsters might give up and fly off -- fat chance. Help could come by -- not likely. He could stay where he was and wait -- that could get him killed. He could roll out from under the truck and attack, which could probably get him killed unless he could knock off several of them before they knew what was going on -- maybe. It seemed like the best answer he could come up with, especially since the engine suddenly coughed, choked and died amid a cacophony of shrieking. Now or never, he thought. Sucking in a deep breath he rolled out from the passenger's side of the truck, crawled away and scrambled to his feet.   
  
There were eight of the blue-shelled insectoid monsters swarming over the truck. One had ripped open the hood with its terrible claws and attacked the engine, frying itself in the process. The other seven, each a meter long with a diaphanous wingspan easily twice that, turned on their perches to face him, their multi-faceted eyes gleaming in the early evening light. Their mandibles and claws clicked a horrid rhythm of doom as predator and prey stared at each other for an endless second.   
  
Reno leveled his Electromag Rod at the back quarter of the truck, where the fuel tank was, and thumbed the discharge button.   
  
A crackling, sizzling ball of electricity burst from the tip of Reno's weapon and slammed into the truck, conducting through the metal body and igniting the fuel in the tank. The truck exploded with a deafening thunderclap and a searing ball of flame that incinerated the insectoid monsters.   
  
Reno deactivated the rod and laid it over his shoulder as he wiped away the sweat of fear that rolled down his forehead into his eyes with his other hand. This was definitely something to report. Rude wouldn't dare complain about this.   
  
The only problem was, it was a long hike back to Balamb. Reno disconnected the two pieces of the Electromag Rod and slipped them back up his sleeves, then brushed himself off. After a quick glance around to make sure there were no more chitinous surprises awaiting him, he began walking back down the road toward the seaside town.   
  
Several miles and a continual litany of "I want a beer" later, he heard the sound of an engine coming his way from behind. Glancing back, he saw a black vehicle approaching. There was only one place it could be headed, he reasoned, so he began waving his arm. The vehicle slowed and came to a stop next to him, and the driver's side window rolled down.   
  
The driver was a young man, maybe seventeen or eighteen years of age, with black hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a uniform that Reno instantly recognized as a SeeD cadet's outfit. A young woman of the same age sat in the passenger seat, her long dark hair spilling over the shoulders of a similar uniform, and in the back sat another young man with spikey blond hair, also dressed in the cadet outfit. "You all right?" asked the driver. "Was that your truck back there?"   
  
"Yeah," said Reno. "Damn things just appeared and started tearing up the truck. I jumped out and started to run, and I guess one of them hit the wrong thing, because it exploded."   
  
"Are you headed back to Balamb?" the young woman asked as she leaned over to get a better view of Reno's face.   
  
He nodded once and took another look into the back seat. The blonde boy was staring at him intently with strange blue eyes. It gave Reno the creeps. Come to think of it, there was something about all three of these cadets that creeped him out, like he'd met them before and didn't like them. But they were his best chance of getting to Balamb before sunset. "Yeah. Don't suppose you could give me a lift?"   
  
"Sure, hop in," the driver agreed. Reno opened the back door and slid into the vehicle, giving the blonde an amiable smile. The blonde didn't smile back.   
  
Creepy bastard, Reno thought. Oh well, at least I won't have to walk all the way back.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
As the red-haired stranger climbed into the car, Cloud slid himself across the seat to make room. He shifted his sheathed sword as he did, but his eyes never left the stranger's face. Now it was his turn for an unexplained sense of familiarity to overcome him, much like Vincent had described earlier in the day. The stranger's face, his oily-smooth words, the smirking smile upon his lips, it all seemed familiar, like he knew this man from somewhere. The sensation made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something was wrong here, something dangerous.   
  
The stranger didn't speak as the car began moving down the road toward Balamb. Cloud turned his eyes away from their new passenger, but he couldn't make himself relax entirely. Out of the corner of his vision, it seemed to Cloud like the newcomer was doing his best to watch them all at once without making himself obvious. Just paranoia, Cloud thought to himself. He's just a guy who needed some help. What would Lucia say?   
  
As soon as his thoughts turned to the brightly-smiling girl, Cloud felt himself easing up a little. He'd only known Lucia for a day or so, but already it seemed like he'd known her for a lifetime. Her smile put him at ease, her words could ellicit responses from him when nobody else could. Only Tifa and Vincent had ever been able to do that, and even they couldn't reach some of the hidden inner portions of his mind the way Lucia seemed to do without any effort at all. Cloud believed Vincent when the other young man said that there was something about Lucia, and he didn't even need to pass her a spell to figure that out.   
  
The miles rolled past without incident. Soon, the town of Balamb appeared, standing out against the waters of the bay and the hills to the west. Vincent drove the car through the town's main gate and slowed to a stop. "This okay by you?" he asked over his shoulder to the stranger.   
  
The flame-haired man nodded once. "Yeah, this is good. Thanks a lot." He opened the door and climbed out without another word, and began walking down the main street away from them.   
  
"That guy is trouble," said Cloud.   
  
"Tell me about it," Tifa agreed. She turned in her seat to look at the blonde in the back. "I've seen him before, I'm sure of it."   
  
Vincent shook his head and sighed. "I wasn't gonna say anything," he said as he began guiding the car down the road at a pace barely faster than a walk, "but you're right."   
  
Tifa turned her head and gazed down the street. She could barely make out the stranger's hair. "Should we follow him?"   
  
"That would be like giving trouble an engraved invitation," Cloud said to her.   
  
Vincent shook his head. It didn't seem like such a hot idea to him, either. "I think we should just leave him alone."   
  
"Yeah..." said Tifa. "I guess you're right." She wasn't convinced, though. Yeah, the guy seemed dangerous, but they were SeeDs, they could handle anything one man could throw at them. Well... almost SeeDs. "Hey, turn right here. As long as we're in town, I wanna see my folks."   
  
Vincent followed her directions, turning the car to the right down a sidestreet. In front of the Balamb Hotel, Niles Reno turned just in time to see the vehicle rounding the corner. A brief impulse to follow was crushed by his desire to see the look on Rude's face when he made his report. He entered the hotel, striding past the front desk and ignoring the clerk's obsequious greeting on his way to the stairs to the second floor.   
  
Elena was sitting cross-legged on her bed reading an issue of Timber Maniacs when Reno walked through the door. She looked up briefly, then turned her attention back to the magazine. "Find anything?"   
  
"Oh, did I ever," Reno told her. "Where's Rude?"   
  
"Out on the balcony."   
  
"Figures." Reno stripped off his dirty jacket and flung it into the armchair that sat by the vanity.   
  
"What happened to you?" Elena asked him. She frowned at the state of his clothing as she closed the magazine.   
  
He dropped onto his own bed and stared at the ceiling. "I was out driving around. Didn't find anything most of the day, so I was about to come back when I got a reading. I stopped and got out to get a better look, and then I turned around to come back and tell you and Rude. I found out the hard way what it was that was setting off the scanner."   
  
"And that was?" Elena was sitting up straight now, her eyes rivited on her partner.   
  
"Bugs."   
  
She couldn't hold back the giggle that came to her lips. "Bugs?" she demanded. "Oh, come on."   
  
"Bugs. Bugs this big," said Reno as he held out his hands to demonstrate their body size. "Blue ones. Eight of 'em swarmed me, all over the truck. I rolled under the truck to buy myself some time, and one of them carved through the hood with its claws and killed the engine. Stupid thing died too, but that left seven more. So I did the only thing I could."   
  
Elena knew what was coming next, as surely as she knew anything. Reno's style would allow only one way out of that kind of situation. "You blew up the truck, didn't you."   
  
"Bingo."   
  
Elena muttered something indecent about men and rolled off her bed. "Do you have any idea how much that's going to cost us?"   
  
"Hey, it was the truck or me, and I wasn't about to be lunch for a hive of big blue insects with attitude problems bigger than Rude's," Reno retorted.   
  
"Unfortunately," Rude said from the doorway that led to the balcony, "Reno may not have had any choice. If you'd really done your homework, Elena, you'd know that there is a local species of large, blue, insectoid fauna known colloquially as 'Bite Bugs'. They tend to attack in swarms, but not that large, nor that aggressively."   
  
"They were the reading I'd picked up, I'm sure of it," Reno told him.   
  
Rude nodded once, slowly. If the Bite Bugs had become that bloodthirsty, it was certain their genetic patterns had been tampered with by the man they all sought. While diving that afternoon, he and Elena had killed three shark-like fish that superficially resembled a strange species of amphibious fish called Fastitocalon-F. Only superficially, however; the fish had attacked them, swimming suddenly out from a rock outcropping and snapping at them with razor-sharp teeth as he and Elena had moved past. The two of them had handled the attack without any mishaps, but the hyperaggressive nature of the animals was as sure an indicator of their tampered genetics as the scanner's readings. "We're getting close," said Rude to the others. "We have to meet with the council again tomorrow, so we're going to have to spend some time actually working on our cover, but I want the two of you to keep your eyes open. Tomorrow night I want to go out to where Reno was attacked and look around."   
  
"What about tonight?" Elena inquired. "No time like the present."   
  
"I have other matters that need my attention," Rude replied, "and Reno looks like he could use a break. Tomorrow. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to be going." The bald man breezed through the room and out the door, leaving Elena staring at the space where he had been.   
  
"I really want a beer," Reno complained.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
"Turn into that driveway," Tifa said as she pointed toward one of the downward-sloping drives to the right side of the road that led to a small, open garage underneath a house. "Go ahead and park in the drive, Dad won't mind."   
  
Vincent turned the car into the driveway and shifted into park. The house itself, painted in a faded sky blue that was shaded to gray in the setting sun, was a narrow affair, hemmed in on both sides by similar neighbors built wall-to-wall, as so many houses in Balamb were. The single white-trimmed first-floor window and two matching second-floor windows were decorated with snowy white curtains, and the panes stood open to let in the ocean breeze. Concrete steps sided by waist-high walls led up to the undecorated white front door. Music wafted faintly out of the open windows. "Somebody's home," he said.   
  
Tifa opened her door and jumped out, her eyes lit up with excitement. She ran around to the steps and bounded up them two at a time, and rapped on the door. Cloud followed her with his eyes and let out a small sigh. "You going to be okay?" Vincent inquired. Cloud nodded wordlessly, keeping his expression neutral. "This is the day we talked about, you know." Some time ago, the trio had sat in Vincent and Cloud's dorm room discussing the possibilities of meeting each other's families. Cloud, of course, had said nothing; he had no family for his friends to meet. Vincent and Tifa both had done their best to make him feel welcome to join them, and Cloud had only nodded in mute agreement. For days afterward Vincent and Tifa had both worried that they had offended him, but he brushed their concerns aside and focused on their studies. In time, they had let the matter drop. But now they were facing the reality of family once more. "Would you rather go for a walk? We can check out the town."   
  
"No," said Cloud, his voice flat. "She'll want to introduce us to her parents. Wouldn't want to leave her hanging."   
  
Vincent flashed his friend a smile and got out of the car. He and Cloud reached the steps just as the front door opened. In the doorway stood a stocky man of perhaps forty-five, his short, dark brown hair touched at the temples with a light frosting of steel. His face was weathered, but kind, and dark eyes shone out from under heavy brows. Those eyes widened in surprise when he saw who his callers were. "Tifa?"   
  
"Hi, Daddy!" the girl exclaimed and threw her arms around her father.   
  
The man caught her effortlessly and lifted her into the air, laughing in joy. "Tifa! It's so good to see you!" Tifa giggled brightly and kissed her father noisily on the cheek as he set her down. "Why didn't you tell us you'd be back in Balamb?"   
  
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she told him. "I've got so much to tell you... Oh! Silly me. These are my best friends in the whole world, Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine." She turned in her father's arms to nod at Vincent and Cloud, who stood politely at the middle of the steps.   
  
Tifa's father released his daughter and strode forward onto the small porch. "The young men I've heard so much about, hmm?" He extended a calloused, strong hand. "I'm Cole Lockheart. Tifa's told me quite a lot about you both."   
  
Vincent took Cole's hand swiftly and smoothly. "I'm Vincent. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Tifa's told us about you, too."   
  
Cole shook Vincent's hand firmly, then turned to hold his own out to Cloud. After a moment's hesitation and a barely perceptible nod from Vincent, Cloud took Cole's hand and squeezed it once. "Nice to meet you."   
  
Tifa's father smiled again, the expression wrinkling his weather-beaten face, and looked back at his daughter. "Just as quiet as you said he was."   
  
"Daddy!" Tifa exclaimed, embarrassment flushing her pretty face.   
  
"Where are my manners?" Cole wondered aloud. He turned and extended his hand toward the door, inviting them all inside. "Let's step inside. Your mother will be so happy, Tifa."   
  
The living room they entered boasted a hardwood floor covered in the center with a faded woven circular rug that bore patterns of muted forest green, crimson and white. An archway in the far wall led to the kitchen, and stairs built of the same wood as the floor led up the right-hand wall to the second floor. A potted dwarf palm occupied the near left corner, its vibrant green fronds catching the last of the day's failing light. A plump, comfortable-looking couch nearly the same green as the rug occupied the center of the left-hand wall, and two matching chairs flanked an end table boasting a lamp on the other side. A small oak entertainment center along the far wall held a home stereo system, the source of the quiet music they had heard outside. Sounds of clattering and motion came from the kitchen, accompanied by delicious smells which were further stirred by the lazily-moving four-bladed ceiling fan overhead. Tifa walked right through the room and into the kitchen. Several seconds later there was a terrific clamour and a surprised yelp of "Tifa!" in a matronly voice.   
  
Cole shared a sheepish grin with Cloud and Vincent. "Sounds like Laurel's happy."   
  
The men rounded the corner to see Tifa embracing a short woman wearing her silver-streaked black hair wound up in a tight bun at the back of her head. The woman was holding a wooden spoon still red from the sauce she had been stirring when her daughter had appeared in the kitchen. The older woman, evidently Cole's wife Laurel, released Tifa and smiled at the girl. "Why didn't you tell us you'd be in town?"   
  
"I wanted my transfer to be a surprise."   
  
"They're surprised, all right," Cloud mumbled to himself. Vincent silenced him with a gentle nudge to his ribs.   
  
"It's a good thing I was making a big pot of sauce, then," said Laurel. "You will be staying for dinner." It wasn't a request. Cloud privately wondered if they'd get out of the house before having multiple courses stuffed down their throats. "Now if you'll excuse me, this is the most delicate part of the whole operation. Tifa, you stand right there and tell me all about what's been going on with you. You boys," she said to Vincent, Cloud and Cole, "can go take a walk. Such a nice evening."   
  
Knowing they had been dismissed as firmly as they would be by Headmaster Cid Kramer, the two cadets followed their friend's father out of the house and down to the sidewalk. The evening breeze brought them the salty smell of the ocean and the din of fishing boats returning to the docks. Cole led them on a leisurely stroll through town to a bench outside a junk shop, across the street from the Balamb Hotel. The road running past the hotel was the main strip, coming into town from the countryside and continuing to the right past the hotel, down and around a bend to the left to reach the docks at the bottom of the hill. Cole chatted with them about a great many subjects of no importance as the sun sank below the horizon. As they moved to return to the house, Cloud noticed Cole looking toward the hotel. The older man was watching a bald-headed man wearing a dark blue suit and sunglasses walk to the doors of the hotel. Cloud dismissed the fact that the man's suit seemed to resemble that of the stranger they had picked up by the road on the way into town as irrelevant.   
  
The house was rich with the smell of dinner when they returned. The ladies had set the table with five places, and just a moment after the men arrived the meal was served. For several minutes the five were silent except for the occasional comment about Laurel's excellent cooking. Then Laurel began to tell her husband what she had heard from Tifa while he, Cloud and Vincent had been out. "They were working with magic spells in class today," she concluded.   
  
"Oh, really?" asked Cole. He sipped from the glass of wine he had poured for himself, then continued, "I always wondered what that was like."   
  
"We weren't just working with spells, though," his daughter explained. "We were learning Junctioning, which basically is taking spells and using them to make yourself stronger, faster, better able to withstand injury."   
  
"Is it dangerous?"   
  
"Oh, no," she said with a laugh. "We've got the best teachers." Cloud and Vincent nodded in agreement.   
  
Cole pondered this statement for a minute as he ate. Then he asked, "Can anyone do this?"   
  
"No, sir," said Vincent. "You have to have a link with a Guardian Force before you can do it this way."   
  
"Guardian Forces," Laurel muttered in an unpleasant tone. She blushed slightly when all eyes turned to her. "It's a personal story. I apologize."   
  
"Have you been hurt by one?" Cloud suddenly asked.   
  
Silence descended on the table. Tifa shot her friend a horrified look and began to stammer an apology. "No, Tifa, it's all right," Laurel said. "This is something I've kept to myself for a long time.   
  
"My older brother Charlie came home one day when I was very young with a crystal he'd found while running with his friends on the beach. 'What is it?' I asked him. 'I don't know,' he told me. But it was a very pretty stone and he didn't want to sell it. So he took his allowance and the stone to a jeweler, and had it set in a mounting and put on a chain as a present for our mother. She was overjoyed when we gave it to her. Mother wore that stone every day, and made sure to tell everyone that her children had given it to her.   
  
"Then, one day, Mother and Charlie were out on a ride in our family boat, and they were attacked by monsters. Mother panicked..." Laurel paused, her eyes shining with tears. Cole touched her shoulder gently to reassure her. She continued, "Somehow, with the stone Charlie had found, she accidentally summoned the Guardian Force named Leviathan. She couldn't control it, and it swamped the boat as it attacked the monsters. The boat was completely wrecked, and Mother drowned. Charlie was picked up by another boat. The stone was lost."   
  
The color ran from Tifa's face as if washed away by a summer storm as a terrible, horrific notion ran wild through her mind. She had found her stone on the beach one day. Her hand pressed to her chest where, underneath her jacket, the deep blue pendant that linked her to Leviathan hung from the chain about her neck. "I don't believe it..."   
  
Vincent turned to look at Tifa. "What is it?" he asked, his voice shrouded in concern.   
  
Hurriedly Tifa yanked the iolite pendant out into the light, then reached behind her neck to undo the clasp of the chain. She held the stone up and pleaded with her mother, "Was it like this? Was it this one?"   
  
Laurel took the chain and pendant from her daughter's shaking grasp and examined it. "The stone was the same color, yes, and it had the same trick of changing shade when you turned it in the light. But I can tell you for a fact it wasn't this stone. The one we gave to Mother was shaped completely differently." Her eyes raised to meet Tifa's. "This is Leviathan, I take it?"   
  
Tifa nodded mutely. Laurel's assurance that the stone in her possession was not the same one that had inadvertantly caused her grandmother's death relaxed her somewhat, but now the girl was uncertain of her mother's feelings about Leviathan and Guardian Forces in general. Her eyes searched the table for something to grasp, something solid now that many things seemed so unsteady. Laurel coiled the chain in her hand and said, "You be careful with this one. The Old Man of the Sea took your grandmother. I don't want to lose you to him too." She reached back across the table and set the pendant next to Tifa's plate. "How did you come by that?"   
  
"I found it on the beach... Cloud and Vincent were with me. We were watching a whale swimming offshore, and I was climbing on some rocks, trying to get a better view. I slipped and fell, and when I did I saw this stone lying on the beach just above the tideline. As soon as I picked it up I knew what it was. I showed it to my Instructor at Trabia Garden and he sent me to Headmaster Rebecca, and she confirmed that it was Leviathan. She said she'd never heard of a cadet forming a link with that Guardian Force, so I should consider myself very lucky." She looked up at her mother. "If I had known that Leviathan was what really killed your mom, I would have tossed it back into the sea."   
  
"The Old Man chose you for a reason," Cole said quietly. "Perhaps your grandmother's spirit had something to do with that."   
  
Vincent and Cloud shared a look. They both knew, from Tifa, that the fishermen of Balamb could be superstitious, but this was something else.   
  
"But..." protested Tifa.   
  
"Your father is right," Laurel said, cutting her off. "I miss my mother very much, even now, and I have no great love for Leviathan or any other Guardian Force after what happened to her. But if the Old Man of the Sea has chosen you, you can't turn away from it."   
  
"Do you think Leviathan chose Uncle Charlie that day?"   
  
"I try not to think about that," said Laurel with a faint sniff. "And you probably shouldn't think about it either." She pushed back her chair and rose. "Is anyone interested in dessert?" And that was evidently that for the topic.   
  
Dessert was strawberry shortcake. Cole deliberately quizzed Tifa, Cloud and Vincent about Balamb Garden to draw their minds further away from the subject of Laurel's mother, Charlie and Leviathan. Tifa still had not put the chain back around her neck, however, and eventually slipped it into a pocket.   
  
Two hours later, Vincent politely noted the time to his companions. Tifa bid her parents a long, fond farewell and promised to come visit at least once a week. The cadets were silent most of the way back to the Garden, each engrossed in their own thoughts. Tifa could not get the image of the great sea serpent rising from the sea, crashing down and destroying a small boat from her mind. If Charlie had kept the stone for himself, what would have happened? Would Grandma be more than just a story passed down by her mother and uncle? And why had they kept the tale secret all these years? Was Uncle Charlie afraid someone might think he was the cause of his mother's death?   
  
Cloud watched Tifa, who had turned her face toward the window and was staring sightlessly at the passing night-shrouded landscape. He wished there was something he could say to comfort her, but such things just weren't in his nature. He could only imagine what she must be feeling, to be linked to the Guardian Force that had inadvertantly killed her own grandmother. He thought for a moment about Quetzacoatl, the great thunder-bird Guardian Force with which he was linked. Its presence rested in the back of his mind, noticing his attention and responding fondly. It almost seemed eager to aid him in battle, to blast his enemies with a storm of lightning. When Cloud thought of Leviathan, Quetzacoatl seemed to pout just a bit. Cloud almost smiled... almost.   
  
"I like them a lot," Vincent said when he could take no more of his friends' stillness.   
  
"I knew you would," said Tifa. Her voice was soft, hollow, disspirited.   
  
The rest of the ride home was completely quiet.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
This story is actually only Part One of Islands, which is in and of itself only one part of a larger group of stories to be told set in the Final Fantasy 8 world. Think of this as a teaser, a sample. It's a way for me to test the waters to see if this crazy idea of mine will fly or flop. At some point the complete story will be posted; as such I've designated this file for chaptering.  
  
The title of this story, Islands, is a two part wordplay. One part of that is the phrase "no man (no one) is an island". The second part will be revealed at a later date. :)  
  
Special thanks on this one go to:  
  
#fanfics and #FinalFantasyGamers on Sorcery.net -- my usual haunts and support groups.  
  
Greenbeans -- whose epic SEEDFIC PROJECT was the inspiration for me to get off my duff and tell this tale. SEEDFIC is being posted at fanfiction.net as well as at http://www.centragarden.net but the website is definitely more informative. It ain't canon, but it oughta be! Read it. Love it. "We love Xu-chan!" :D  
  
Dianna Silver -- my partner in crime in this and many other worlds, the prereader for this final version of Islands, creator of Dia L'nar (expect to see much more of her) and my voice when I just can't seem to find the words for my ideas. Sample her writing at http://www.diasilv.com and look forward to seeing her own work set in this particular version of the FF8 world.  
  
In the next part of Islands: Cloud, Tifa and Vincent undertake an important mission and must decipher more strange clues about themselves, and Elena, Rude and Reno continue the hunt for their prey... 


	2. Final Fantasy VIII: Islands -- Part Two

Final Fantasy 8: Islands  
by Corvus kanelocke@hotmail.com  
  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Part Two  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
"So as you can see he's got his fingers in a number of pies," said the deep, quiet voice from the telecom panel.   
  
"He always did," replied Cid as he reclined in his chair. The fading evening light pooled in his office, gilding everything around him. This was the time of day he usually allowed himself to become nostalgic. But today, he was concerned with the current activities of his old nemesis, Vinzer Deling. For a moment he pondered the years that he and Deling had danced around each other, each motion made by proxy -- Galbadia here, SeeD there. How long had this been going on? It was getting hard to tell. "Though what he's up to right now is beyond even me."   
  
"I will tell you this," the voice continued. "This situation is very serious. A teammate and I were attacked today by Fastitocalon-F's that had obviously been mutated, and the other team member reported losing a vehicle to mutant Bite Bugs. The target has chosen fast-breeding species to work with, probably to test the viability of controlling the results."   
  
Cid rubbed his jaw slowly as he pondered this information. Those three new cadets had reported that the Bite Bugs they had fought had been more vicious and numerous than usual. It would fit with what he was being told now. If this were true, and he had no reason to believe it was not, then he had to act swiftly to counter this move.   
  
What troubled him was this: why would Vinzer Deling deliberately turn lose a scientist with genetic samples that one of his own labs had created and label that scientist a renegade, and then send three of his Matrix agents after that renegade? What did he stand to gain by playing both ends against the middle like this?   
  
"Oh, and just a warning," the voice went on. "You've got three cadets treading a little too close to us. You need to control them before they get too curious for their own good."   
  
"I'll make sure they don't get in your way," said Cid. He knew who those cadets were. Already a plan had begun to form in his mind. Deling was up to no good no matter which way he moved, and since Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart were already in over their heads, Cid could make use of their talent and status as mere cadets. He would just have to move carefully. "Is that all?"   
  
"Yes. I'll keep in touch, but don't expect anything."   
  
"I never do." He leaned forward and broke the connection, then settled back into his seat. The only one who might be able to help him figure out Deling's motives and goal was someone he could not ask for help. A brief moment of sadness fell over Cid despite all his efforts to ignore it. No matter how many years went by, no matter how long he used people for his own ends in a great game of human chess against Vinzer Deling, no matter how cold and unfeeling he tried to become in an effort to prepare himself for the even greater battle to come, he would never be able to ignore the human heart inside him. And that heart grieved for a very specific loss.   
  
Somewhere, out in that great, wide world, was Edea.   
  
All he had left of her now was this Garden and the Instructors, SeeDs and cadets who lived and worked within its confines. That, and the words she had spoken to him, long ago. A part of Edea was still with him and one day, the spirits willing, they would be together once more, and he contented himself with that. Never let it be said, he thought, that Cid Kramer wallowed in self-pity.   
  
Still... Garden's purpose, one he and Edea had created, could very well mean the destruction of everything Cid loved in this world.   
  
No. No time to think of that. The future was an undiscovered country that would not reveal itself to those who tried to reach for it. The present was what mattered, and in the present he had a situation with which to deal. And whatever the purpose of Garden, it was his, and he would do the best he could with it.   
  
Cid stood from his chair and made his way to the elevator in the office's receiving room. He hadn't eaten yet, and he wanted to talk to Quistis Trepe and Raven Argent. He knew just where to find them.   
  
The cavernous central commons area of Balamb Garden was a drastic opposite to Cid's office. Here the light was bright, shining from lamps overhead, along the walls of the walkway ring and above the doorways to the various Garden sections. Here was the buzz and hum of conversation as Cid emerged from the elevator. Three SeeDs passed him on the stairs and greeted him warmly. As he turned to make his way along the ring to the cafeteria he saw a Shumi Instructor approaching, its alien form hidden beneath a voluminous white tunic, a deep crimson tabard-like overtunic and a golden-yellow cowl over its head.   
  
"Good evening, Headmaster," it said as he stepped up to speak with it.   
  
Cid nodded and smiled warmly. "Good evening, Instructor. All is well?"   
  
The cowled head bobbed once in affirmation. "Yes. Instructor believes the students in the cafeteria are excited."   
  
"A good dinner will do that," joked Cid. When the Shumi's head tilted to the side in a dog-like expression of confusion, he choked off a laugh and said, "Never mind. What's got them all riled up?"   
  
"Instructor Trepe and SeeD Argent are playing Triple Triad."   
  
Oh, the poor, poor man, Cid mused. Raven's skill in Triple Triad was renowned throughout Balamb Garden, but Quistis Trepe was quite possibly one of the best to ever play the game. It would be quite exciting to watch. "I'm on my way to eat, myself. Have a good evening, Instructor."   
  
The Shumi bowed its head once and continued on its way, leaving Cid to smile in its wake. Though the Shumi had strange ways, their support had been invaluable in constructing the three Gardens, in particular... (Ugh. What an unpleasant thought.) Shumi made up a large percentage of the Instructor staffs at Balamb and Trabia Gardens, at Cid's request and Headmaster Rebecca Bennett's approval. There were no Shumi at Galbadia Garden, however -- Headmaster Corron Martine was forced to dance on a knife edge betweeen SeeD and the notoriously prejudiced Galbadian Army, which received many of Galbadia Garden's failures and drop-outs as the price of Garden autonomy in that country. Of the three Gardens Martine's had the lowest graduation rate which, though something of a disappointment, also served to misinform Vinzer Deling about SeeD's numbers.  
  
Cid made his way to the cafeteria in time to witness an event that would have the Garden abuzz with talk for days to come. A large ring of students surrounded a table, the surest indicator of the card match. Cid nudged his way to the interior of the ring. Quistis and Raven stared at each other across the table. Six of the nine spaces on the board had been filled, and from the presence of counters reading "+1" and "-1", as well as small flame, ice and wind glyphs, he could tell they were using the Elemental rule. Both players held their cards close in their hands -- the game was not Open. And from a quick glance at the middle-left position, which held a red card with an "A" rank on its left, and the card above it, which matched the color and top number of the card below it, Cid could guess that the rare Same-Wall rule -- which included the Plus rule -- was in effect. These two were going for broke.   
  
Quistis was playing blue, and it had just become her turn. She squinted down at the board and traced the cards in her hand with her thumb as she thought. The silent tension in the room continued to mount as she considered her possibilities. Immediately to Cid's left, a dark-skinned man with a geometric design shaved into the hair on the back of his head that Cid recognized as SeeD Derek Thompson -- rumored to be one of Quistis's fanclub, the "Trepies" -- slowly let out a breath he probably hadn't even realized he had been holding. Finally Quistis selected one of her two remaining cards and placed it at bottom center, flipping the card to its right to her blue color. Raven's eyes narrowed dangerously.   
  
Cid considered the Argent as he calculated his next play. The glint in Raven's eyes reminded Cid of the man's feathery namesake. For as long as Cid had known Raven an intensity had burned just behind his moss-green eyes, and now it was in clear evidence. Perhaps ninety seconds went by before Raven placed Bahamut, the card he had so recently won, at bottom left. The center card flipped to red.   
  
Quistis calmly placed her last card in the remaining slot. "Plus," she said as she began flipping cards. "Combo," she continued, and flipped more. Raven stared at the table in silent shock. He had been beaten. Not just beaten, but "owned" as the younger cadets might say.  
  
The gathered crowd erupted into cheers.   
  
Quistis leaned over and gathered up the cards she had brought to the game, and then smiled at Raven. "If you don't mind, I know which card I'm claiming as my prize." She gathered up Bahamut and reclined in her chair, making a show of slipping it into her deck. She was immediately surrounded by several SeeDs, including Derek.   
  
Across the table, Raven let out a breath and chewed on his bottom lip. (Looks like she's going to be the one teaching me now,) he thought as he squared his cards with a couple taps on the table. He looked up and saw Dia L'nar's face in the crowd for a moment, watching him. Before he could even smile or wave Dr. Kadowaki's assistant turned away and disappeared into the throng. (I wonder what that was all about.)  
  
"A truly eventful evening, it would seem," Cid remarked. Raven's head whipped around to face the Headmaster. "It looks like you've met your match, Raven," he continued "Have you eaten yet?"   
  
"I got a bit sidetracked," the SeeD admitted. Not many things would disrupt Raven Argent's focus, but the promise of a good game of Triple Triad could do it. "Have you?"   
  
With a laugh Cid said, "I was about to remedy that situation right now. I would be delighted if you would join me."   
  
Raven nodded his assent. "Certainly." Not every day one got the honor of dining with the Headmaster of the Garden, after all.   
  
The admiring horde surrounding Quistis at last began to disperse. A tiny moment of exasperation slipped through the beautiful blonde's control. (They're really helpful for getting information, but I could do without the attention.) She attempted to blow aside one of the twin locks of golden bangs which was now drooping in front of her face, but the stubborn hair simply drifted right back to where it had settled in the middle of the hubbub. Raven's chuckle at her distress reached her over the din of the cafeteria; she returned a little raspberry and brushed the hair away with her hand.  
  
"Congratulations, Quistis" the Headmaster told her. "Very well-played."   
  
"Oh, thank you," the blonde replied with a blush. "I didn't know if I'd be able to pull it off until the very end."   
  
"And so modest, too," Raven quipped, which earned him another raspberry.  
  
"Would the Champion honor us with her presence at our evening meal?" Cid gallantly asked Quistis as he bowed and extended his hand to her. Roses bloomed on her pale cheeks once more. Quistis delicately took the proffered hand and stood. "Shall we?"  
  
Once they had been served, Cid led them to an empty table as far from overhearing ears as they could get. Both the Headmaster and Raven pulled out a seat for Quistis, which made the willowy young SeeD roll her eyes and sigh, "Men." She pulled out her own seat and flounced into it.  
  
Cid kept the conversation light, and for a few moments he was able to set aside the true purpose of his search for them. "I should warn you right now," Raven joked with Quistis at one point mid-way through the meal, "that I fully intend to challenge you to a rematch. My honor is at stake, after all." His honor being, of course, the Bahamut card.   
  
"Good," Quistis retorted, "you have a Carbuncle card I want. But you'll have to wait, I was thinking of challenging Jason Arkady next, he's got an Ifrit that I need."  
  
Raven reclined in his chair and affected a long-suffering sigh. "That card," he said, "will be mine."   
  
"Doesn't matter." Quistis sniffed and looked back to her plate. "I can win it from you just as easily."   
  
When their plates were clear and they sipped hot tea, Cid allowed his smile to fade. He hated to put an end to the aire of easy camaraderie, but there was a reason he had brought them to this table. "I received a call this evening," he said, "which shed some light on a recent... situation... with which I believe Quistis is not acquainted."   
  
"Actually, Raven told me about it earlier," Quistis told him. "The problem with the mutant Bite Bugs?"   
  
Cid nodded in agreement. "Yes, exactly. However, there's more to it than Bite Bugs. Apparently some of the Fastitocalon-F in Balamb Bay have mutated as well. I can't say at this point what's causing it," he lied to them easily, "but I'm fairly certain it's related. An official SeeD presence in this matter might not reflect well on the Garden, but I'd like more information."   
  
Quistis took a cautious sip of her tea. She felt she knew where Cid was going with this and she didn't know if he liked it much. "I could put out some feelers through the Trepies and see if they've heard anything."   
  
"If they know anything at all, it would be very helpful. I was thinking in a different direction, though." Quistis stilled a groan that threatened to escape her as Cid went on. "The cadets who had contact with the Bite Bugs could use this situation as a perfect training mission." He looked to Raven, his eyes searching for the other man's reaction.   
  
"Cadets Valentine, Strife and Lockheart do have to fulfill the mission requirement before they qualify for the Field Exam at the end of the term," admitted the SeeD. He was becoming uneasy about this entire situation, and even more uneasy about sending cadets into it, but once Cid Kramer made up his mind... "It's not the Fire Cavern, but this would certainly satisfy that requirement, I think."   
  
Quistis agreed with Raven. She was more sanguine about the possibilities, however; she had spent more time going over Cloud, Tifa and Vincent's files and she felt they would be able to handle the problem quite well. "Their performance in class is exemplary. I'd almost say unbelivable if I wasn't watching it happen. They're already setting the curve for the rest."   
  
"Did you also want to include Lucia Seagill?" Raven asked. He was almost afraid to find out. Lucia was the daughter of Lyra Seagill, a friend of his parents and a formidable woman Raven did not want to cross under any circumstances. Should she find out that Lucia had been sent on a mission like this, it was quite likely she would tear Balamb Garden apart singlehanded.   
  
Cid shook his head negatively. "No, I believe Tifa, Cloud and Vincent can handle this quite well as a team. I'd like for you to excuse them from class, Quistis. Be sure to provide them a copy of the rest of the week's syllabus. This shouldn't take longer than that. Give it to them when you see them tomorrow morning, and send them to my office, please."   
  
Quistis forcibly swallowed the sip of tea she had been taking. The rest of the week? The volume of material the three cadets would miss could set them back considerably. The Headmaster had to have something up his sleeve. "Okay," she agreed, though inwardly she wished she could have declined.   
  
There was a stretching moment of silence, and then Cid said, "That went well. What are your plans for the evening?" he asked them amiably.   
  
"I have some progress reports to file," said Raven, "and I was planning on a workout in the Training Center later."   
  
The blonde Instructor shrugged a bit. "I'll be preparing the excuses and going over my lesson plan for tomorrow. After that, I hadn't planned much." She looked to Raven. "You up for a strategy meeting tonight?"   
  
The other SeeD nodded. "Strategy meetings" were as much get-together parties as they were planning sessions, and the two of them hadn't had time to let loose for a while. "Sounds like an idea. What about your own plans, Headmaster?"   
  
"I have a lot of paperwork, and I was planning on retiring early." After the events of the past few days, he certainly needed the rest. "Very well. Thank you ever so much for joining me for dinner, good company always makes a meal more enjoyable. I'll see you both tomorrow." Cid left the table carrying his tray, leaving the SeeDs to watch him go.   
  
"This just keeps getting more and more bizarre," Raven mused.   
  
"Tell me about it." Quistis regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth and shook her head quickly. "On second thought, don't."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Lucia was waiting for Tifa in their quarters when the long-haired girl returned from Balamb. The dark girl's jade eyes searched her roommate's face and tried to untangle the knot of emotions displayed there. It was obvious that Tifa was upset about something, the way she walked through the door and straight into her cubicle to throw herself upon her bed without even a "Hello", and from the way she didn't move when Lucia turned off the music she had been listening to. "Tifa? You want to talk?"   
  
"Not really," came the response, muffled by the pillow into which Tifa had buried her face.   
  
Lucia stepped into Tifa's cubicle and sat gently at the edge of the bed. "Did something happen while you were visiting your parents?" Tifa said nothing. Lucia could feel the tension rolling off the other girl and her concern was rising. After a few silent seconds Lucia picked up the hairbrush on the dresser, then reached over and gently slipped Tifa's hair from the band that held it back. Lucia spoke as she began to brush the ends of her roommate's luxurious dark cascade of hair with long, slow strokes. "What can you tell me about Cloud?"   
  
Again, Tifa was silent. After a few seconds, however, she reached into her pocket and withdrew the chain and iolite pendant that she had refused to wear back from her parents' house. With an almost lazy motion she held it up and let the pendant dangle from her fingers. Lucia never stopped brushing as she observed the stone. "That's your GF stone, isn't it?"   
  
"Yes," Tifa said finally. A few seconds later, she said, "No," and dropped the chain and stone onto the bed. Then she was still once more.   
  
Somewhere deep inside Lucia's mind a familiar presence stirred. A figure emerged from darkness into her mind's eye. Her hands continued to minister to Tifa, but her concentration turned inward.   
  
The figure that appeared to Lucia took the form of a muscular man wearing a white linen wrap-kilt secured by a wide belt of gold, the buckle of which was a winged scarab inset with shining jewels. His skin was the deep bronze of a desert-dweller, his head was that of a noble falcon, and upon his feet were open sandals woven from river reeds and gilded. A sword, its blade hooked out and back halfway along its length, hung from his belt. In one hand he grasped a gleaming cruciform amulet, its ovoid head radiating the warmth of the sun.  
  
Lucia bowed her head in respect and no small degree of awe. No matter how many times she spoke with this, her Guardian Force, she would never fail to be moved. "Greetings, Heru," she said.  
  
The ancient Guardian Force's free hand gently lifted her chin so that her jade green eyes looked into his golden avian gaze. Amusement shone there. "We've known each other far too long for that, young one." The hand moved to take Lucia's. As she returned the warm, comforting clasp the darkness around them brightened into an early-morning vista. They stood on a high precipice, looking southward over a desert plain. "Your friend is deeply troubled."  
  
"I can feel it, but she hasn't said anything. When I asked her about her GF stone she said it was hers, then changed her mind, like she was trying to distance herself from it."  
  
The raptor-visaged man stared out across the plain. For a brief moment Lucia felt power surging forth from him, questing, searching for something. Then it retreated. "Leviathan, the one the fishermen call the Old Man of the Sea. That one was ever beyond even our ken."  
  
(Our? What does he mean?)  
  
"You have forgotten that thought is speech in this place, young one," said Heru with vast mirth. "I hear your question, and I regret that I cannot tell you more than this, until the time is right. Not all of my kind, what you call Guardian Forces, are the same. Like you humans, we have our own minds and wills. Some of us have agendas. Leviathan has always been inscrutible, appearing, disappearing and moving as he wishes with nary an explanation."  
  
Fear began to chill Lucia's spirit despite the warmth around her. "What does he want with Tifa?"  
  
"I cannot say. I believe he acts with honorable intent, but I cannot make any assurances."  
  
The dark girl's eyes widened. "You're playing a hunch?"  
  
That solar gaze shifted from the sun-fired plain to her. Lucia felt the spirit bore into her very essence. "To be blunt... Yes."  
  
"Is there..." She attempted to swallow around a sudden tightness in her throat. "Is there anything I can do?"  
  
"This is why I wished to speak with you. Stand by her and the other two. They will need your strength and purity of spirit. They are facing a great trial, a prelude to something that will shake the world. If they fail..." Heru fell silent. His words hung in the air, pressed down on Lucia, full of dreadful import. He was silent for long moments before speaking again. "I must go. Call upon me when you need me. My strength is yours, as ever, Lucia." The Guardian Force touched the first two fingers of his free hand to his beak, then to the girl's forehead. A glorious fire seared through Lucia's consciousness, filling her with light and hope, then burst forth from her, directed toward some other.  
  
When the blaze dimmed Lucia's mind had returned to the present. Before her, Tifa had propped herself up. Her brushing had worked itself most of the way up Tifa's long hair. It was then that Lucia understood where Heru's power had gone. "Feeling any better?" she asked.   
  
"Yeah," Tifa said, "thanks."   
  
A companionable quiet settled over the two, free from the tension and concern that had filled the air a few minutes before. Tifa told Lucia about her parents, about how they hadn't changed. She carefully avoided bringing up the subject of Leviathan and her family, but her eyes were continually drawn back to the blue stone that glittered from the bed beside her. Tifa resolved to keep the stone shut in a drawer as much as possible. Just knowing it was near her was starting to make her feel nauseated.   
  
Having Lucia around, however, was like having an extra reservoir of strength. Lucia's supportive presence blended with Tifa's friendship with Cloud and Vincent, becoming a talisman against the fear and uncertainty. Tifa knew she would have to eventually confront Leviathan if she was ever to be free of this fear; until she was ready, her friends would allow her to go on. "No one is ever an island," her mother had once told her. "We're all adrift in this sea together. Be there for the people you care about, and they'll be there for you." Was that how Laurel Lockheart had moved on with her life after that accident? It seemed to Tifa that it was the most likely possibility.   
  
The meditative repetition of Lucia's gentle brush strokes lulled Tifa into a light doze, and when Lucia set the brush back on the dresser and turned back to look at her roommate, Tifa had curled up on the bed and completely drifted away into sleep.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
The next morning, Cloud and Vincent met Tifa and Lucia in the corridor learing from the dormitory to the central commons. Everyone's mood had improved from what Tifa could see. Vincent was his usual charming self, she felt one hundred percent better, and even Cloud was smiling. "Ready to tackle another head-stuffer class?" Cloud asked her.   
  
"I don't know if I have any room left in my brain after yesterday," replied Tifa. Instructor Trepe had promised them that eventually the information she had crammed into their minds would become second nature, with enough practice, but from the students' point of view it was a mountain of concepts that dared them to attempt a climb. That morning after dressing Cloud and Vincent had practiced transferring spell quanta; each of them proudly wore his Guardian Force stone, and as they walked along Cloud flashed Vincent a quick look that they had developed for use in combat situations, then sent a charge of Cure spell energy across the link they formed in that instant. Tifa knew what they were doing, though she could not feel or see it. Her hand reached into her pocket and clasped the iolite pendant that she refused to wear.   
  
"Want to get some practice in, Tifa?" asked Lucia.   
  
Tifa shook her head, her hair swinging from the motion. "Maybe later."   
  
When they arrived at the second-floor classroom they were met by Instructor Trepe. In the willowy blonde's hands were folded pieces of official Garden stationery, which she quickly handed to Vincent, Tifa and Cloud. "Sorry to throw a wrench into your morning," she said, "but the Headmaster would like to speak with the three of you. Those are your excuses from class. He'd like to see you immediately."   
  
Vincent opened the paper Quistis handed him and read over it carefully. "The remainder of the week?"   
  
Quistis nodded a fraction and struggled to control the smile that threatened to break through her neutral expression. She had finally been able to convince Raven, after several hours of talking the previous night, that classroom work simply wasn't challenging enough for this "terrible trio" and that Cid was on the right track. "That's right, Vincent."   
  
Lucia smiled brightly at her companions. "Looks like the Headmaster has something special in mind for you. I'll try to catch you later, okay?"   
  
"The word 'special' could have so many meanings," said Cloud as he frowned at his excuse.   
  
Quistis choked off a laugh. "You catch on quickly." With Cid Kramer, anything was possible.   
  
"You'll do just fine," said Lucia. She leaned over and pressed a quick, noisy kiss to Cloud's cheek, and then scampered into the classroom. Cloud blinked once, twice, a third time and rubbed his cheek.   
  
"I didn't know you were such a ladies' man, Cloud," Vincent said slyly. He held up a placatory hand when his friend scowled a thunderhead in his direction. "Easy there, killer." He looked to Instructor Trepe and hefted the excuse paper. "You realize this is gonna set us back in class."   
  
"Oh, I think you're doing well enough that it won't matter much," she said cryptically. "You'd better get going, he's expecting you." She smiled at all of them and walked into the classroom to begin the day.   
  
"What do you think he's going to tell us?" Tifa wondered as they made their way back to the elevator.   
  
Vincent glanced at the paper in his hand again. What indeed? If they were being excused for the rest of the week, it had to be something important, possibly field work. Could this be related to the monsters they had encountered? "Only one way to find out."   
  
The Headmaster looked up briefly from his computer panel for a moment as they entered. Vincent noticed a distinct sense of deja-vu as he, Cloud and Tifa stood at attention in a line before the desk and waited for Cid to speak. "At ease," Cid said, and they relaxed. The Headmaster adjusted his glasses and turned off the panel, then looked up to them. "It's good to see the three of you are adjusting well to life at Balamb Garden. Instructor Trepe and SeeD Argent have been keeping me apprised of your progress, and I can say with certainty that I believe the three of you will become very fine SeeDs."   
  
"Thank you, sir," said Tifa. "The work has been... very challenging." The memory of her spar with Xu was quite vivid -- some of her muscles were still sore from the mock combat.   
  
"That is something at which Garden excells," said Cid with an enigmatic smile. "What of you, Mister Strife? Finding Balamb Garden to your liking?"   
  
To Vincent's surprise, Cloud answered immediately, "Yes, sir, very much so. Like Tifa said, it's been challenging. I like that."   
  
"An excellent quality in a SeeD cadet," Cid replied, amusement written large on his face. And a bit of... pride? Vincent wasn't sure. The Headmaster turned his gaze on Vincent and said, "Instructor Trepe mentioned to me that you have shown quite a capacity for para-magic, Mister Valentine."   
  
Vincent blinked at the praise, uncertain if the Headmaster was looking for something in his reaction. "I've found the concepts quite easy to understand, sir. I've been working with Cloud on Junctioning and passing techniques, too. We've begun working on a system of gestures and signals for use in tight situations when we might need to pass or cast and can't spare a shout."   
  
Tifa looked sharply at Vincent. "Were you planning on sharing?" she asked him, momentarily forgetting she was standing in front of Cid.   
  
"This afternoon, after we'd hammered out a few more ideas," Vincent told her with a grin. Then they both remembered Cid and faced forward quickly. "Sorry, sir."   
  
"Oh, no need to apologize," said Cid. "You've taken the initiative in your studies. I like that." He adjusted his glasses again -- giving himself a moment to think, in Tifa's opinion -- and stood from his chair. "I'm certain the three of you will be able to handle this little... situation... quite well. Possibly better than some of the other candidates I had pondered." This was, of course, a lie; he had considered no other candidates, cadet or SeeD. He knew, however, and was assured by their subtle changes in expression that such praise would bolster their confidence. "The other day, the three of you came into contact with monsters out in the open field, is that correct?"   
  
"Yes sir, Bite Bugs," Vincent explained.   
  
"Was there anything unusual about these Bite Bugs?"   
  
Tifa cleared her throat. Was the headmaster quizzing them or did he honestly not know yet? "They attacked in a large swarm, sir, and were much more aggressive than normal Bite Bugs."   
  
"I see," Cid remarked. Tifa would know, having grown up in Balamb. "Anything else?"   
  
It was Cloud's turn, now. "When we took a car to Balamb yesterday, we passed a truck that had apparently exploded. There were several... bits... of Bite Bugs that had been caught in the explosion. A bit further down the road we picked up the man who had been driving the truck. He said that he had been attacked by the monsters and that they were probably the cause of the explosion."   
  
"Anything unusual about the man?"   
  
None of them said a word. How could they explain the shared feeling they had experienced? How could they tell the Headmaster that the man they had picked up had left them uneasy, as if they knew he had a bad reputation, when none of them had met the man before? Several seconds passed. Cid was waiting for an answer. "Not that I noticed, sir," Vincent volunteered. "He was wearing a blue suit, quite disheveled, but being attacked by monsters could do that."   
  
"Indeed it could." Cid reclined against his desk and studied the cadets. They were hiding something, that he could tell, but what could it be? There had to be a way of finding it out without tipping his own hand. Letting them know too much could be fatal for them, and there was no way he would permit that. "Did you overhear anything while you were in Balamb?"   
  
"No," Tifa said, perhaps a bit too quickly. "We had dinner with my parents, chatted for a while, and came back to the Garden."   
  
"Hmm... Well, to get down to the reason you're here. I want the three of you to get to the bottom of this little buggy mystery." He allowed them a moment to exchange startled glances, then continued, "This will count as the prerequisite to the Field Exam at the end of the term. Your goal is to find the source of these unnaturally aggressive monsters and either report it or, preferably, eliminate it. Do not risk yourselves any more than is absolutely necessary. I expect this should take no more than four days at the utmost, which is why you have been excused for the remainder of this week." That would give them a day to rest before returning to class at the beginning of next week. "Do you have any questions?"   
  
"Balamb is a big place to search. Four days doesn't sound like enough time," said Cloud.   
  
Before the Headmaster could answer, Vincent looked to Cloud and said, "We've got a pattern to work with already. Both of these attacks took place in the Alcauld Plains area."   
  
"Not much of a pattern," Tifa interjected, "but we could start in Balamb and see if anybody else has seen these things."   
  
Cid remained quiet as the cadets began formulating their plan. He was quite pleased to see how quickly the got down to business, rejecting useless ideas and honing the useful ones into a framework for their mission. Most of his hidden uncertainty was assuaged; there was, however, one lingering doubt that he would have to address when the cadets left. "Since you seem to be eager to start your mission, I'll let you go. I'm confident you'll succeed."   
  
The cadets saluted the Headmaster in textbook unison and left his office. Cid quietly counted to sixty breaths to make sure they wouldn't come back, then moved behind his desk and placed a quick call.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
"For the fourth time, I don't see what we're doing out here."   
  
Rude never raised his from the scanner he held in his right hand. Reno's constant complaining was wearing on his prodigious patience, but the slightest moment of inattention could be the instant he would miss what he was searching for: another sign of the mutated Fastitocalon-F's. Elena decided to take the task of shutting up Reno onto herself, for which Rude was silently thankful. "We heard you the first three times," she growled, her voice filtering out from the cabin of the small bay cruiser they had borrowed, where she was busy donning a wetsuit. "And just like the first three times, the answer is, we're going to capture a live specimen. Clean out your ears!"   
  
The redhead scrubbed his face with his hands as his irritation grew. The so-called team leader wasn't telling him anything beyond the obvious, and the rookie was mouthing off way too much. "We already know he's here. What the hell is catching a freaking fish going to do?"   
  
"By seeing exactly what sort of mutations our quarry has made to the Fastitocalon-F, we can ascertain what he's been doing with the information he stole." Rude held up a single finger to silence Reno as the other man began to splutter an interjection. "This information will allow us to upgrade our search criteria and determine what we might be facing. You don't think he's going to come quietly when we catch him, do you?"   
  
"Well, no..." allowed Reno. But according to his mind, every moment they wasted trying to figure out what their prey was up to was a moment wasted that could be used to actually catch the idiot. He'd had that argument with Rude the previous evening, an argument that had ended with Rude retreating to the balcony, Elena stalking out of the room and slamming the door behind her, and Reno caught between wanting to throw Rude over the side and to track down Elena and beat her senseless with his electromag rod. He'd done neither, and eventually he'd gone to sleep, still fuming at the complete lack of common sense his teammates were displaying.   
  
Elena emerged from the cabin, her body sheathed in the skintight wetsuit and her mechanical gill apparatus and net-gun dangling from her hand. She walked to the aft of the cruiser, her swim-fins flapping noisily on the deck, and stepped over the side onto the diving platform. "Keep your eyes in your head, Niles," she cooed at Reno, who was staring unabashedly at her figure.   
  
"I'm just wondering how you're gonna look with huge bites taken out of you."   
  
"You could always come down with me," she fired back.   
  
Rude's strong voice cut through their banter. "Shut up, both of you. I think I have something."   
  
Reno moved from the aft bulkhead to look over Rude's shoulder. The screen of the scanner was displaying a weak signal, but it was getting stronger by the moment. Something was definitely approaching. "That one of your fish?"   
  
Finally, Rude looked up from the scanner. His shaded eyes turned to Reno. "More than one. Probably two, perhaps three. Elena, wait a minute, I'm coming down with you." With that statement he strode into the cabin to don his wetsuit.   
  
"Looks like you're stuck topside," Elena taunted.   
  
Reno shook his head, his eyes rolling, and sighed. "At least I'm not turning myself into fish-bait."   
  
"No, you do a good enough job attracting bugs. Birds of a feather, I guess."   
  
"Now just a damn minute, rookie--" Reno's retort was violently cut short as he threw himself to the deck just in time to avoid having his head chewed off by a leaping fish at least four feet long. The gold and orange Fastitocalon-F sailed up over the deck, its vast sail-like fins granting it a kind of feral grace, and splashed into the water on the other side. "I'm really starting to hate this job!" Reno spat. He picked himself up and flicked his arms out, flinging the ends of his weapon into his hands.   
  
Elena vaulted back over the aft bulkhead and yanked off her swim-fins, then readied her net-gun. On either side of the cruiser several of the golden amphibious fish emerged from the water, their bodies levitated by internal gas bladders. Each fish had a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth in multiple rows for shredding their prey effortlessly. "Rude, we have a problem out here!"   
  
"They look hungry," Reno muttered as he thumbed the activator on his weapon. The electromag rod sang out its familiar hum. He wasted no time in aiming it and releasing a bolt at a fish that charged forward on the starboard side, its teeth gnashing. The ball of electricity slammed into the Fastitocalon-F and sent it spinning out of control back into the water of the bay. Two of its fellows on the port side took advantage of Reno's turned back, streaking forward to chomp at his head and kidneys.   
  
Elena knew if she tried to use her net-gun to capture at least one of them she would tangle Reno in the net with it. Thinking quickly, she slammed the butt of her gun into the body of one of the fish and kicked the other one up into the air as it turned on her sudden motion. At that moment the cabin door slid open and Rude stepped out wearing only his suit pants, flinging a small white stone. In midair the stone flashed and transformed into a streak of lightning. Thunder rumbled and the stricken fish fell, twitching and smoking, to the deck. Its companion floundered in midair, stunned by the sudden crash.  
  
The thunder came again as Rude flung a second stone at the floating Fastitocalon-F's on the starboard side. Another fish dropped lifelessly into the sea and its ravening companions dove after it, sensing a less dangerous meal opportunity. Elena brought up her gun and snared the fish floating over the deck with the titanium-mesh net. On the port side the remaining fish retreated, venting gas from their bladders and diving into the waves. "Got one," Elena said calmly.   
  
"I think I've been cursed," Reno mused. He swallowed down a rising tide of bile as he picked up the still-smoldering Fastitocalon-F on the deck. It reeked of ocean, fish and burnt flesh. The fish could very well have summed up everything wrong with the entire mission so far, and Reno snarled as he tossed it overboard. Seconds after the body slipped into the water there was a sudden boiling fury as the still-prowling monsters below consumed it. "Every damn time I get into a vehicle I get jumped by monsters."   
  
"Don't know what we'd do without you," Elena told him. She turned to a large container that stood next to the cabin bulkhead and tapped a button on the top. A large portion of the front side rose. Elena shoved the net-bound Fastitocalon-F into the makeshift cage, kicked the gun in with it, and pressed the closure button. "Are we gonna feed this thing, or what?"   
  
"If we have to," said Rude. "Now that we have one, we can move on to the next step. Reno, take us back to port." He returned to the cabin to dress.   
  
"More fish," Reno muttered as he jabbed the engine activation button. "And not one single decent beer."   
  
"How did you ever make it as far as you have in Matrix?" Elena asked him.   
  
Reno turned to regard his rookie teammate and glowered darkly. "By eliminating people who got in my way."   
  
"Whatever, Reno." Elena sighed with distaste and leaned on the bulkhead, watching the horizon as the cruiser glided back toward Balamb. Niles Reno, she thought for what must have been the hundredth time since she had first met the man in Deling City, was a complete idiot who didn't deserve the uniform he was wearing.   
  
Dealing with the locals at the dock wasn't difficult. Rude ordered the container to be taken to their room at the hotel, and several dock-workers began moving it immediately. He weighed the possibility that the stunned fish-monster in the box would begin thrashing around, alerting the men carrying it, and decided it was worth the risk. They couldn't leave the container on the cruiser or at the dock, and he didn't feel like carrying the thing. Any questions could be dealt with in a proper manner. After assuring himself that the dock-workers had understood his instructions to leave the container in the room and not mess with it, he began making his own way up the hill, Elena and Reno trailing after.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
At that precise moment, Vincent Valentine stood outside the shop at the top of the hill. "No doubt about it," he said to Cloud, who sprawled on a bench a few feet away. "The truck wasn't destroyed by those monsters. It was deliberately detonated. I knew something was odd but I couldn't figure out what until we took a closer look at it."   
  
"Oh, so that's what that lollygagging was back there," Cloud drawled. "Any reason you didn't mention it until now?"   
  
Vincent scratched his chin. He hadn't been able to put the pieces together until just now, but once he did he mentally kicked himself for not seeing it sooner. There was no way any of the Bite Bugs could have caused ignition of the truck's fuel, and the blast mark on the frame near the fuel tank spoke of an electrical attack. Bite Bugs didn't use Thunder magic. What was the driver hiding? "I wanted to make sure I had everything worked out. I'm sure of it now. Somebody hit it with electricity, like a Thunder spell."   
  
"Maybe the driver's got enemies and he didn't want to tell us about them."   
  
"Could be," Vincent agreed, "but that's a line of speculation that won't get us anywhere."   
  
"You sure about that?" Cloud asked him. Sometimes the most incidental bits of information could prove useful, especially in a case like this. "Need I remind you how freaked we all were by the guy we picked up?"   
  
Though he tried to suppress it, Vincent couldn't stop the shiver. "No. I remember that all too well." He looked up the street toward the train station and watched the people coming and going on their earnest errands. "I hate standing around here waiting. We should be doing something."   
  
Cloud chuckled and turned his face up to the sun. "I'm doing something right now. Enjoying the sunshine and fresh air."   
  
"You know, I think Lucia's done you some good," said Vincent. Cloud turned a skeptical eye on his friend, who continued, "Ever since you started talking to her you've been loosening up, more social. You've said more this morning than you did in the entire week previous, and I know for a fact that you've smiled six times today already."   
  
Rolling his eyes, Cloud looked away toward the hotel. "Only you would keep track of something like that." A tall, bald, tanned man wearing sunglasses and a navy-blue suit was walking up the hill from the dock, followed by a blonde woman in a similar suit... and the man they had picked up on the road. "Hey, Vincent, check this out, there's the guy now. And he's got friends."   
  
Vincent turned to follow Cloud's gaze. The redhead was trailing behind the others, scowling and walking with his hands in the pockets of his trousers. "He's unhappy about something." The woman turned her head and spoke to the red-haired man, whose scowl darkened. Evidently the woman had scored a point of some kind on him, because when she turned her head back she was grining broadly. "And I think she's it."   
  
"Think we should go talk to him?"   
  
The redhead's eyes found Cloud and Vincent and the man missed a stride. "We might have to, he's seen us," Vincent observed. The man spoke to his companions, who stopped and looked at the cadets as well. A short discussion ensued, and then the bald man and the woman walked into the hotel. The redhead crossed the intersection toward Vincent and Cloud, his expression suddenly lightening.   
  
"We meet again," the man said. "Thanks again for your help the other day. I don't think I properly introduced myself. I'm Niles Reno, from the Deling Commonwealth Foundation."   
  
On impulse, Cloud lied through his teeth. "I'm Clark, this here's Louis."   
  
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, even if a bit belated." Reno leaned against the wall of the shop, doing his best impression of complete innocence. Making SeeDs, even just cadets, suspicious would be nothing but trouble. But they were probably here for a reason, and he wanted to know what it was. "You guys are from Garden, right?"   
  
There was no denying that. When they had met Reno on the road, they had been wearing their uniforms. "Yeah," Cloud told him.   
  
"Never really hear a lot about Garden in Deling City. I mean, the Galbadian army gets a lot of officers and soldiers from the Garden in Galbadia and all, but they don't talk about it. What's it like?"   
  
"School," Vincent said with a sly grin, "with big, sharp teeth."   
  
Reno's response was cut off as Tifa came trotting down the road. "Hey, guys! I-- Oh, hi," she breathed as she came to a stop.   
  
Reno nodded a greeting and reintroduced himself. "Louis and Clark here were just telling me a little bit about Garden."   
  
(Louis and... oh. Makes sense,) Tifa thought. (No idea who this creep is, no need to tell him our real names.) "Sorry to interrupt," she apologized. "And it's good to see you again, Mr. Reno, I was wondering how you were doing."   
  
"Very thoughtful of you... what was your name again, miss?"   
  
Tifa blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Carol."   
  
"Carol. Let me assure you I'm doing just fine." This wasn't going at all the way Reno wanted it to. Getting bogged down in pleasantries and him giving ground wasn't where he wanted the conversation to lead, and now there didn't seem to be a way to redirect it. Time to go. "Unfortunately I have to get moving, my associates and I have work to do. Maybe we'll meet again."   
  
"Doubtless," Vincent said. He watched Reno walk away without blinking, following the man with his eyes all the way to the hotel door. "I don't like that guy."   
  
"I'm supposed to be the paranoid one, Vincent," Cloud said. The blonde stood and stretched. "You find anything out, Tifa?"   
  
Tifa nodded. Indeed she had. "Dad tells me one of his acquaintances who lives in the village of Waltrop heard some people talking. Apparently our buggy friends have killed some cattle."   
  
Neither of the others had ever heard of the place. "Waltrop? Where's that?" asked Cloud.   
  
"A few kilometers northeasterly of here. There's a back road that leads out that way."   
  
"Let's go check it out," said Cloud.   
  
Tifa chuckled and looked to Vincent for a moment. "My, isn't Cloud the decisive one today." They headed back to the car, which was parked in the Lockhearts' driveway, and left Balamb on their way to the village.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Not far outside Balamb, the pavement of the road gave way to a packed dirt trail that wound its way among the gentle hills of the Alcauld Plains. Tifa allowed herself to relax, drifting back into memories of picnics and nature hikes. She could almost taste the sandwiches her mother would pack. Oftentimes she would sneak bites while they were walking, then blame the nibbles on sly wildlife.   
  
Though her father was a fisherman he had a wealth of knowledge about the land around Balamb as well as the ocean. Once he had taken her into the wood that lay to the west and shown her a cave. It had been evening when they left, and dark fell around them as Cole related a tale about a horrible monster that lived in the cave. Tifa remembered the thrill of terror that had run riot through her as her father described its huge fangs, its glowing golden eyes that could light up the night, its terrible roar... and then the fit of laughter that had followed when an irate raccoon had popped out of the brush nearby and hissed at them, sending Cole scampering behind a tree.   
  
Waltrop lay six kilometers from Balamb. Just before it was a dairy farm, nestled between an arm of the forest and a large hill. Lines of barbed wire fence sectioned the hill's slope above the road, penning in a herd of grazing cattle. Several windmills stood on the hill's brow, twisting slowly in the lazy breeze. The windmills were attached to small generators that evidently provided much of the farm's power. A man dressed in denim over-alls was attending to a section of the wire and paused a moment to look up as the car approached. Vincent pulled the vehicle to the side of the rough road and they got out, making sure to leave their weapons. "Hello," Vincent said to the man.   
  
"Afternoon," the man replied. His mostly-gray hair framed a face that was lined with years of exposure to the elements, the look of a man who won an honest living. "What can I do for you young folks?" he asked, his speech tinted with the particular accent that seemed to be common to most rural dwellers.   
  
"We're looking for a Mr. Shane Onder, could you tell us where to find him?"   
  
"Sure could," the man said. He took off his gloves and wiped his brow. "He's right here."   
  
Tifa stepped forward and offered her hand. "I'm Tifa Lockheart, Cole's daughter. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Onder."   
  
"You're Cole's daughter? Yeah, I can see it in the face," Onder said as he took Tifa's hand in a rough, strong grip. "I remember him tellin' me he had a girl in school somewheres. Who're the fellas here?"   
  
Cloud and Vincent introduced themselves, and Onder invited them all to join him and his family for a late lunch. "Been up workin' on the fence all day. Somethin' came in an' tore it all to pieces last night."   
  
Vincent asked, "Would this be related to the cattle that were killed, do you think?" If it was more Bite Bugs, they could certainly cut wire with their claws. But why would they go after the wire and not the cattle this time?   
  
Onder shrugged his broad shoulders. "Could be. I'd rather not start in on that, people 'round these parts get a little twitchy about monsters."   
  
The farmhouse was old, the white paint peeling back from graying wood, but the unmistakeable sensation of a well-loved home radiated from every room. Mrs. Onder, a lanky gray-haired woman who wore her spectacles on a chain around her neck and picked them up to look at everything rather than wearing them on her face the whole time, kept everything neat and clean, welcomed the cadets warmly and invited them to wash up, then sit at the dining room table while she fetched lunch. "We don't get many visitors out this way, especially youngsters like yourselves. What're you doing all the way out here?"   
  
"They're here lookin' inta those strange killings, Martha," said Onder. His wife barely remarked as she breezed into the kitchen. "We try not to make much of things like that. Stuff like this happens, time t' time, it's nothin' big."   
  
"Is it true that you overheard some of the villagers saying there was something strange about the... incident?" Tifa asked.   
  
Onder settled into a creaking chair at the head of the table and shrugged again. "Yeah, old Bill MacReady was yammerin' about it to his sister Eleanor. You'd think every monster for a hundred miles had come stampedin' through his living room the way he was on about it. Says a couple head got cut up, like some kind of wild slaughterhouse, and left there in the field."   
  
"How long ago was this?"   
  
"Oh, musta been... three days? Four? Martha, what day was that?" the farmer asked his wife.   
  
Martha walked back into the dining room carrying a tray piled with sandwiches. "Three days ago, Shane."   
  
"Too late to get a look at the cattle," Vincent remarked. "Being able to see the cuts and so on would have helped tell us if it's... what we think it is. But maybe Mr. MacReady will remember."   
  
"If you don' mind my askin'," Onder put in, "just what do you think it is?"   
  
"We think some Bite Bugs got into something they shouldn't have and got a little mean," Cloud replied smoothly.   
  
"Heh. Stupid insects. Figures they'd do something like that. Well, dig in," the farmer invited.   
  
As the meal progressed, the trio learned something about life in and around Waltrop. The Onders didn't live alone, but their three grown children were helping another farming family on the other side of the village to fix a barn that had been mysteriously vandalized the week before. That was the way of things around here -- everybody pitched in to help, and in time of need could call on their neighbors to help them. The primary income of the villagers came in marketing the dairy products produced by the farms around Waltrop. Tifa was especially surprised to learn that the Onder family held the secret of her favorite cheese. Altogether, there was an idyll in the lives of these people. But unless the mystery of these vicious monsters was solved, that idyll could wind up shattered into a million bloody pieces.   
  
After lunch, Onder volunteered to personally show the cadets the way to the MacReady farm. He identified every person they passed, usually leaning out the window to holler a greeting. Tifa suspected he liked showing off how he was riding in a fancy vehicle with "hip" young people, a thought that made her giggle several times. Onder did notice Tifa's heavy gloves sitting on the rear seat next to her, and glanced back to see the SeeD-marked cases containing Vincent's Quicksilver and Cloud's Hardedge, but he said nothing at all.   
  
Bill MacReady was easily seventy years old, and must have worked hard all his life to save up every single bit of grumpiness he could. If anything, the withered old farmer's accent was condensed, and his beady pale-blue eyes stared at everything with piercing suspicion. From the moment Onder opened the door to greet MacReady and received an irritated, "What do you want?" in reply, Vincent knew this was going to be a trial in patience.   
  
"City people comin' up 'ere pokin' 'eir noses aroun'," MacReady grouched. "What kinda hoo-haw you tryin' ta stir up, anyway?"   
  
"We're working on a project for school, Mr. MacReady," Vincent said gently. "If we could ask you a few questions, we might be able to help-"   
  
MacReady cut him off by hawking spit into the dirt. "Ya wanna help? Go bring 'em head'a cattle back ta life. Them was my prime breedin' stock! Dam' monsters come in an' hack 'em ta bits outta spite, I tell ya!"   
  
"I'm sorry, sir, I wish I could. But if we can figure out what's going on, maybe we can keep it from happening again."   
  
The old man glared at Vincent, then shook his head. "'least they didn' get ta my chocobo."   
  
"You have a chocobo?" Tifa asked, her eyes lighting up. Cloud wasn't positive it was just an act to get the old man talking, but he caught Vincent's relieved expression. "Can I see him?"   
  
Some of MacReady's irrascibility lifted as he pondered the request for a moment. "Sure, over here." The old man began walking toward a small stable with wide-open doors. Tifa walked alongside him, asking a non-stop stream of questions about the bird, keeping MacReady's attention. Vincent, Cloud and Onder trailed behind.   
  
"She certainly has a way with people," Onder commented.   
  
"That she does," Vincent agreed, feeling a smile tugging at his lips.   
  
The interior of the stable was divided into four stalls, two on each side, facing a three-meter-wide path between. At the far end of the stable were two large doors like the ones the group passed through, but closed and barred with a heavy wooden beam. The floor was hard-packed earth and was strewn here and there with loose straw.   
  
When the group entered the stable, a large, beaked yellow head popped up in the far stall on the right. The wide, soulful eyes fixed first on MacReady, then the others, and the great bird warbled a querry. "Wark?"   
  
"Got yerse'f some vis'tors," old MacReady said to the bird. He unbolted the stall's gate and pulled the wooden-slat door open. The bird craned its head forward and peered around the post, examining the newcomers. "This here's Firefoot," the wrinkled man said to his guests.   
  
Firefoot stepped out of the stall with rolling, oddly graceful steps. The bird straightened, his head soaring two and a half meters above the floor, and flapped his atrophied wings. "Wark!" he chirped by way of greeting.   
  
Tifa was instantly enchanted. She walked up to Firefoot and ran a hand gently over the bird's lemon-yellow feathers, eliciting a pleased coo. "He's beautiful. How old is he?"   
  
"Four years."   
  
The bird's massive head dropped down and nuzzled Tifa, pushing her back two steps. When he saw what he had done, Firefoot warbled a dismayed, "Wark?" and dropped his head further, eyes full of contrition.   
  
"Oh, it's all right," she assured the bird. She tickled him behind his ear and was rewarded with another coo of pleasure. "He's very strong."   
  
The first hint of a pleasant expression MacReady had shown took light on his face. "Fastest runner here'bouts. Least, he used ta be. Don' get out much no more."   
  
"I always wanted to ride a chocobo when I was little," Cloud mused. Old memories long buried of galloping down the street with a stick between his legs surfaced and played out for him as he watched Tifa with Firefoot. "Guess life got in the way. Still... I don't think it would be that hard."   
  
"Maybe your parents took you when you were really little?" Vincent ventured. Yet as he said that, the peculiar sense of deja-vu that had haunted the three cadets settled over him once again. (What is it?) he wondered. (What's going on?)  
  
"Maybe." But the blonde wasn't convinced and it showed in his tone. He was feeling it too, and his thoughts echoed Vincent's. One look at the wonder in Tifa's eyes was enough to tell him that she was experiencing the same sensation. "Mr. MacReady, about your livestock..."   
  
"Huh? Oh." The old farmer sniffed and scratched his chin. "Yeah, all right. They was all cut-up, like somethin' wit' big ol' claws ripped 'em. Some bites. Happened in th' middle'a th' night. Thought I heard a buzzin', figgered I was hearin' thin's. So's I went back ta sleep. Woke up nex' mornin' and the cattle was cut ta pieces."   
  
Vincent said, "That sounds like our target."   
  
"You kids mentioned something about Bite Bugs at lunch, right?" Onder asked.   
  
Cloud nodded agreement. "That's right. We're trying to track down the nest, and we figured the easiest way to do that is find a pattern in the locations of these attacks."   
  
"Well ain' that somethin'. Whatcha gonna do when ya find it?" MacReady demanded, his sour hardness returning.   
  
"Hopefully," Vincent told him, "wipe them out." MacReady's irritability was starting to grate on his nerves. The sooner they got out of here, the better.   
  
"Buncha school kids goin' monster huntin'? Faugh." MacReady spat into the dirt. "Ain' never hearda no school sends kids out chasin' monsters."   
  
"Actually, Mr. MacReady," said Tifa, "we're from Balamb Garden." She continued to stroke Firefoot's feathers, fascinated by the feel of them passing under her fingers.   
  
MacReady harumphed and patted his hand on the wood of the stall gate. "C'mon, bird, back in yer stall." The chocobo warbled forlornly at the interruption of its visit and trudged back into the stall, then turned and hung its head over the gate. "Time fer y'all ta be movin' on. I got thin's ta do."   
  
Thankful for the opportunity to leave but intrigued by the sudden dismissal, Vincent led the way back to the car. "Don' mind him," Onder said to them as they buckled in. "His grandson applied to Garden and got turned down. Ol' Bill ain't too happy about that."   
  
"If the boy's disposition is anything like his grandfather's," said Vincent, "I can see why the Headmaster turned him down."   
  
MacReady's sour dislike of his visitors seemed to trail after them like a ghost. A sheep that had somehow gotten loose ran across the road in front of the car, forcing Vincent to swerve violently to the right. Somewhere in the grass beside the road lay broken glass, or perhaps a shard of metal; the passenger-side front tire blew. Vincent nearly lost control, barely managing to bring the car to a safe halt. After a comedy of errors ranging from a missing jack, which forced them to hike to the nearest farmhouse and borrow one, and one of the wheel's lug nuts going missing to the spare tire being low on air, they finally made it back to the Onder farm, only to witness the spare also going flat.   
  
"Not to worry. One of my boys can take one of you inta town tomorrow mornin' ta get a new tire and a lug nut," said Onder with a fatherly smile. "We got two old rooms we ain't usin', one for you fellas and one for the miss here." The cadets unanimously thanked the farmer and followed him inside, where he left them in his wife's care before heading back out to continue his work with the wire fence.   
  
After stowing their gear in their room, Tifa, Vincent and Cloud spent the afternoon helping Onder with the farm chores. Once Onder's sons, Kyle, Richard and Aaron, returned, their father introduced the boys to the cadets and the seven set to work stacking the bails of hay the boys had brought back with them in the barn. It felt wonderful to be working with their hands and contributing to the farm. For a time the three cadets were able to forget their mission and enjoy the moment. Hot showers and a homecooked dinner later, Vincent sat with Tifa atop the hill, gazing at the stars in the newly-fallen night.   
  
"I used to stargaze all the time from the beach when I was little," Tifa said. She traced her finger along the familiar lines of the Balamb-fish constellation her mother had shown her long ago. "My mother used to say, 'As long as the fish shines down on Balamb, we'll always have what we need.' I'd go to the beach and look up at the fish and whisper to it, 'Please watch over us.' I always thought it heard me."   
  
"Maybe it did." Vincent turned to look at Tifa, but his next words paused as he saw, for the first time with more than his eyes, the faint starlight washing over her face. Never before had he let himself notice how beautiful she was. His mouth was suddenly dry. He swallowed and pushed on. "I don't know what's happened to Cloud, but I'm really happy he's breaking out of his shell."   
  
Tifa nodded her agreement. She wasn't certain what had finally liberated Cloud from his gloom but after five years of waiting she wasn't about to argue. So far the new Cloud was everything she had hoped lay waiting inside her quiet blonde friend. "Think maybe it was Lucia?"   
  
"I mentioned it to Cloud this morning. He didn't seem too sensitive about the subject, but he didn't say anything about it either." Uncertain of exactly what he was feeling, Vincent reclined on the grass and stared up into the heavens. Maybe something was indeed developing between Cloud and the gorgeous dark-skinned cadet, but his mind had trouble focusing on them. Tifa kept coming into focus in his thoughts; her eyes, her voice, the way she moved. They'd known each other for five years. Why would he start thinking about her this way only now? Shoving the thoughts into a dark corner of his mind, Vincent forced himself to concentrate on the sky. "So what do you think we should do next?"   
  
"Well," replied Tifa, "after we fix the car tomorrow we need to see if we can get more information on the attacks. I printed a hardcopy of a topological map of Balamb that I found in the Garden's database. We can add in the locations of known attacks and start triangulating from there. Maybe we can pinpoint some likely nest locations. We wasted a lot of time today, you know."   
  
Vincent sighed in partial agreement. They had indeed spent quite a bit of their precious time, though he wasn't sure the time was wasted. Making contact with the Onder family could prove extremely valuable in the future. "People hear things, and the things they hear can be valuable," they had been taught.   
  
They lay on the hill in companionable silence while the stars turned a lazy wheel overhead. Somewhere in that time Vincent slipped into a dream...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
He was exercising, lifting weights in the company gym on the sixty-fourth floor. The burn felt good, let him know he was alive. Sometimes this city got to be too much, pressing down on the spirit. There was hardly anything alive besides humans on this giant metal plate. Sure, the company paid lip-service to its employees' comfort by providing potted plants. There was even a tree in the center of the sixty-first flour lounge area. How it grew in the inadequate artificial lighting on that floor was beyond him. The company couldn't be bothered to dip into their own overflowing energy resources enough to provide bright light. He supposed that there was something in the water the tree was given.   
  
He replaced the weight bar on its rests and sat up on the bench. He wiped away the sweat that rolled down his face. The company wanted him to go with the research team to Nibelheim. He didn't mind. Getting out of this city and into some relatively fresh air was enough incentive on its own. The fact that Lucrecia was part of the research team only made it easier.   
  
He made his way out of the gym and down the dark-tiled corridor to the locker room. It was empty, which was to be expected. He worked out late at night, so that he could be alone to think. It was one of the few spare moments he had besides sleep, and even that wasn't always private. At least the pay was good. And if he hadn't signed up, he never would have met Lucrecia. He'd come a long way from the little borough outside Kalm where he'd been born.   
  
At least the company was willing to shell out for hot water. He stood under the near-scalding spray and let the heat soak into him. Yes, going to Nibelheim and spending some time with Lucrecia would be very good. The only hitch in what would otherwise be almost a paid vacation was that creepy scientist, Dr. Hojo. The man carried an aura of tension, like his mind was forever about to snap. He'd seen the scientist talking to Lucrecia several times and had always waited for Hojo to move on before going to her. Hojo was the head of the research team and would be going to Nibelheim as well. He vowed to do his best to stay out of the scientist's way.   
  
The hissing of the water was slowly undercut with an odd buzzing. At first he wondered if something was wrong with the pipes. But an odd sensation of being shaken made his reality twist and fade away...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Vincent jerked awake. Tifa was shaking him. "They're coming!" The air was full of the same droning that had come with the Bite Bugs they had fought the other day. Tifa let go of his arm and scrambled to her feet. Above them, the stars had shifted position slightly; not quite an hour had passed. The full moon, newly risen, cast its light across the countryside, throwing disorienting shadows and bringing objects into odd, sharp relief.   
  
"Where's Cloud?" Vincent asked as he rose from the ground. He scanned around for the source of the sound and cursed himself for being caught unarmed.   
  
"Right behind you!" Cloud sprinted up the hill holding both his own Hardedge and Vincent's quicksilver. He tossed the sidearm to his friend and drew his blade. Starlight rippled across the polished steel. "Came out to look for you two when you didn't come in."   
  
Down the slope of the hill on the other side from the house, a swarm of Bite Bugs boiled out of the moonlit woods. Even as Vincent raised his weapon and lined one of the insects up in his sights he could see the difference that marked these monsters as something new. His finger moved; the Quicksilver barked and a blazing crimson carapace shattered. Again, and again the firearm spat death and two more of the mutants fell, but it wasn't nearly enough. Beside Vincent, Cloud reached out and grasped the air, focusing his mind as he drew the spell potential from one of the rapidly-approaching monsters. The night lit up as the Fire spell exploded, charring its target. Still they came, every fallen one seemingly replaced by two more.   
  
"Fall back to the house!" Cloud shouted as he leapt in front of his comrades. His left hand reached up and clasped the pendant that hung around his neck. Sky-blue eyes closed in concentration. The air became suddenly charged as if lightning were about to strike from the clear night sky. Tifa bolted, her legs carrying her down the hill toward the house like one of Vincent's bullets. Vincent himself was hard on her heels. They had to warn the Onders, quickly.   
  
Behind them the night exploded with light. A piercing shriek echoed across the hills and woods, the battle cry of Quetzacoatl, Guardian Force of Thunder. The blindingly-bright avian appeared above Cloud, hovering in midair by virtue of the downdraft created by its huge wings, reared back, gathering in the fury of a breaking thunder storm, and spat a thousand-tined fork of lightning at the oncoming swarm. The storm caught the mutant insects full-on and fried them mercilessly. Their shells cooked and burst as they fell to the ground.   
  
Cloud opened his eyes as Quetzacoatl faded back into the spirit world, and looked down on the devastation the great thunderbird had unleashed. The hillside was littered with smoking red shells and scored with blackened streaks. The air was thick with the aroma of ozone and smoke. Some of the bodies were still twitching, temporarily animated by the power that had slain them.   
  
No -- some of the monsters, including those Vincent had shot, were still alive. They began to rise, their wings fluttering unsteadily at first but gaining more sureity. One by one they were surrounded in a sparkling glow. Cloud didn't need to wonder what was happening. Somehow these mutants were able to use Cure spells. He turned and ran; there was no way he could face them alone.   
  
The Onder house was brightly lit. Vincent stood guarding the front door. He leapt over the porch railing and watched the hillside as Cloud approached, then backed up the steps and into the entry foyer. He slammed the front door closed and locked the old-fashioned mechanical deadbolt. "What happened?"   
  
Cloud shook his head. "Quetzacoatl hit them pretty hard, but some of them got back up. These bugs must be tougher than the normal ones, and the spread pattern didn't hit each individual as hard. All three of the ones you dropped got up, too. And they used Cure spells on themselves."   
  
"Oh, fantastic." The humming of the swarm's approaching wings drifted through the closed door, getting louder with each passing second.   
  
"We can't stay in here," Tifa added quickly. "They'll tear the place apart."   
  
Vincent nodded. This momentary retreat had allowed them to regroup and gather their wits, but it also endangered the Onder family. If the mutant Bite Bugs decided to attack the house in an effort to get at the cadets -- and there was every indication that such a possibility was quite likely -- then the Onders could easily be hurt or killed. They had to head back outside and face the swarm. "We're going to have to hit them hard and fast. Cloud, you and I will switch off summoning our GF's, you first. I'll pin them down with my Quicksilver and you can hit them with Fire spells. Tifa, you be our extra eyes and make sure we don't get surprised."   
  
The brunette girl nodded with a look of great relief. For a moment Tifa had thought Vincent would ask her to contact and summon Leviathan, and the revulsion that had stirred felt like it would choke her. "Right."   
  
The sound of a pump-action shotgun being cocked drew their attention from their huddle. Shane Onder nodded to the cadets. "Can't sit by while you all defend my farm for me, now, can I?" he remarked.   
  
"Sir, trust me, it's no shame. These things are vicious. It would be best if you stayed inside and covered your family in case any of them get past us." Vincent drew his Quicksilver and loaded a fresh clip into the weapon. Driving the clip home with a smack of his palm, he continued, "If you could call Balamb Garden and get in touch with Headmaster Cid Kramer, we'd greatly appreciate it. When they ask what your business is, tell them it's a message from Cadet Vincent Valentine and it's extremely urgent. Tell him what we're facing here."   
  
The farmer considered the three young people before him. He hadn't seen bravery quite like this in... Well, it had been a long time since the aftermath of the Sorceress War. Briefly he wondered what had become of that Loire fellow. But it didn't matter now. What mattered were the SeeD cadets standing in front of him, ready to lay down their lives for him and his family and depending on him to contact their Headmaster. Onder nodded firmly -- he could do that much for them. "I'll get right on it."   
  
"Thank you, sir," the cadets said as one.   
  
Tifa grabbed the door handle, looked to Vincent for the silent count, and yanked it open on three. Vincent brought up his Quicksilver and scanned the moonlit country revealed by the open portal. The thrumming of the swarm pressed all around them like the weight of an approaching storm. Vincent edged onto the porch, his eyes sweeping from left to right and back again. The swarm had spread out, its members attacking the wires Onder had spent so much time putting up, the barn, and... their car. Vincent cursed. Cloud stepped through the door onto the porch, saw the same thing and grit his teeth.   
  
"Change of plans," Vincent whispered. "Looks like it's going to be a free-for-all now." Cloud nodded his agreement, having reached the same conclusion, then turned to catch Tifa's assent. The closest targets were on the car, busy ripping it to shreds.   
  
Cloud didn't need to examine the SeeD vehicle to know that the cost of repairs would be nearly as prohibitive as replacing the thing, and trying to pick the bugs off one by one would only draw trouble. But if the car were to explode, it would give them the cover of a distraction as well as aiding them in killing the mutant bugs. He wondered if the same thoughts had gone through Reno's mind that day on the road out of Balamb. "You get everything out of the car?" he asked quietly.   
  
"Yes," Tifa hissed, "why?"   
  
"This is why." Quetzacoatl felt Cloud's call and responded eagerly, leaping into the battle from the spirit world. The massive Thunder spirit swooped over the car and let fly with a blazing storm of lightning. The car exploded violently as the air and fuel in the tank sparked and ignited. Crimson insects shrieked horribly, punctuating the roar.   
  
"Go!" Vincent called. He leapt off the porch and turned to face the barn. The massive insects crawling over the structure were momentarily startled by the explosion and the death of their hivemates, and paused in their splintering attack on the wood. Deep within himself Vincent touched the icy presence that was his link to Shiva and urged her forth. Before him the air was illuminated by a ghostly presence, the aurora filled with the twinkle of ice and snow. A beautiful woman, ten feet tall and blue as a clear winter sky, took shape in the light. Cutting arctic winds swirled around her and gathered in her hands. Shiva reared back and thrust her hands forward, spraying a devastating blizzard of howling gales and razor-sharp ice crystals at the mutants. The sudden assault froze their joints, chilled their hydrostatic motion, dropped them to the ground. Even as the powerful Ice spirit faded away the moonlight night flared again as Cloud grasped the Fire potential around the Bite Bugs and brought it to life. Frozen shells cracked under the sudden strain.   
  
Vincent could hear Tifa's voice screaming.   
  
A sudden weight and searing pain and knocked Vincent to his knees. A deep gash had been ripped open in his back by one of the mutant bugs. Agony ripped a cry from his throat, jagged as the rent in his flesh. The weight was flung aside as Cloud delivered a vicious kick to the attacking insect. The blonde spun around, severing the head of one of its companions, completed his turn and blasted Vincent's assailant with one of his own internalized Fire spells. Though he felt his own strength diminish ever so slightly it had been worth the cost to save the time casting about for the Fire potential around the bug. And he could always Draw more.   
  
Ten feet away Tifa was fighting like she had never fought before. Her fist collided with one monster even as another slashed at her hamstrings and a third flew at her face. She clutched the oncoming bug and drove her fist into its head, screaming the whole while. Warm blood slicked down the backs of her legs. She staggered, tripped over something she could not see, and fell to the ground.   
  
Huddled on the ground, Vincent desperately reached inside himself to find the Cure spells he kept. In a split second he felt the pain in his back subside. He rolled to his feet and dodged aside in time to avoid having the side of his head split open by an opportunistic mutant. Anger flared in his heart as he brought up his firearm and pulled the trigger twice. The first shot missed widely but the second ripped off one of the bug's diaphanous wings, sending it spinning out of control. Cloud's sword made short work of the bug as it careened past.   
  
The swarm kept coming. In the moment it took Vincent to reload his Quicksilver he was surrounded by four more monsters. One came at his head, one attacked his calves, one latched onto his right forearm and the fourth latched onto his back. The anger burning in his mind transmuted to fear as their claws pierced his flesh and spilt his blood onto the ground. In desperation he blasted the bug attached to his face. It flew off in a shower of gore, ripping a gash in his cheek as it did. Vincent himself fell backward and pinned two of the bugs benath him. The one attached to his arm hung on, its terrible claw nearly scissoring the cadet's forearm in half. He couldn't control his fingers. The pistol dropped to the ground.   
  
Searing heat blistered the side of his face as the mutant on his arm was incinerated by Cloud. The one under Vincent's legs squirmed its way to freedom only to meet the edge of the blonde cadet's blade. The one under his back made an uncomfortable pillow of gore.   
  
Unable to spare the time to examine Vincent, Cloud wheeled and swung, dancing deadly steps as yet more of the monsters converged on him. Their tactics changed. Instead of trying to latch onto him and cut him apart they were circling and slashing, wearing him down. Ten different cuts dripped away his life and he could feel even his enhanced strength beginning to fade. (This can't be it,) he thought as he backslashed, reversed his blade and cleaved another crimson Bite Bug. (I promised Zack. I promised Mom and Dad. The Galbadians owe me. I can't go out like this.)  
  
Pain rolled through Tifa's mind unrestrained, dulling her world. In desperation, uncaring of the chance she otherwise would not have taken, she drew out Leviathan and clutched the stone, reaching out to the Old Man of the Sea. Her mind's eye revealed the great winged sea serpent rising from the waves, reaching out to her in turn. From him passed a Cure spell, enough to get her on her feet but not quite enough to dull the pain. She only then realized how close to death she had been. Indignant anger sparked into burning rage. She saw Vincent lying on the ground, his arm nearly severed halfway between the wrist and elbow. She saw Cloud spinning like a whirlwind of doom, yet still beginning to fail. Burning rage froze into cold, righteous fury. Something orange exploded before her eyes and she fell on the nearest monster. Her fists and feet drove again and again with uncanny, supernatural force and precision, slaughtering her opponent with no mercy. Another target entered her sight and fell to her onslaught. And another. Cloud was heartened by her renewed assault and leapt into the air, cleaving three bugs apart on the way down. The enemy was dwindling.   
  
Vincent groped about for his firearm with his left hand. Finding it, he raised it, pointed at a suddenly retreating group of monsters and pulled the trigger. Agony and terror swirled through his mind and turned into power. Power which flowed down his arm. Power which loaded into the chambered round. Power that exploded out with it. Power that detonated among the fleeing foe. Power that shattered them.   
  
Assured victory had turned into a rout for the hive. Those that remained scrambled away, seeking cover. In the cacophony a single shot went unnoticed. From a second-story window, Richard Onder, Shane's middle son, gazed out at the fleeing bugs and held up a small black metal and plastic device about eight centimeters long. The small monochrome screen on its front side lit up with concentric rings and a single bright dot which was moving away from the center. Richard smiled as he watched the device, the receiver for the tracker he had just attached to one of the monsters. It was working perfectly.   
  
Vincent gratefully tapped one Cure spell, then another, and felt his wounds close and his arm reknit. Cloud knelt on the ground, breathing great gulps of the night air, and did the same. Tifa put Leviathan back in her pocket and walked over to first Cloud, then Vincent. After seeing that they would pull through, she made her silent way back toward the farmhouse.   
  
"Let's not do that again, okay?" Cloud gasped.  
  
"I hear you," agreed Vincent. "This is getting ridiculous."   
  
Cloud levered himself to his feet, supporting his weight with the Hardedge. "I wonder what's wrong with Tifa."   
  
The answer was obvious to Vincent, at least. "She had to use her GF to tap her magic. After what her mother told her about Leviathan, she doesn't want to get anywhere near it. Have you noticed she hasn't been wearing the stone ever since that little chat?"   
  
"I didn't really pay much attention," Cloud admitted. He looked up at the sky and wondered briefly how Lucia was doing on this beautiful night. He couldn't wait to see her again, which disturbed him more than a little. His entire world was turning on its ear because of her warm presence. "We should probably check and see if the bugs left us any compensation for the hassle," he said, referring to the strange habit of Lunar-born wildlife species -- monsters -- to occasionally leave behind crystals of undifferentiated para-magical potential, which could be "refined" into specific spells, or pieces of their own bodies charged with para-magic which could be used in place of spells. These crystals and pieces were a valuable commodity, often trading hands in games of Triple Triad at Trabia Garden when the participants didn't feel like trading their cards.   
  
"Go ahead and get started. I need to check with Mr. Onder and see if he contacted the Garden." Vincent stood, brushed off his uniform and made his way back to the house.   
  
As he passed into the entry foyer he saw Tifa lying on the couch in the living room, her beautiful eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Before he could approach her he was accosted by Richard. The young man pressed the tracking receiver into his hand. "I managed to tag one of the bugs with a radio transmitter before they high-tailed it. The range isn't that great, what with the signal interference that's got all the old radio and television stations shut down, but it should help."   
  
Vincent considered the lit screen of the receiver. The glowing blip moving away from the center, he assumed, was the transmitter. "What would you estimate the range is?"   
  
Richard clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "Two, maybe three kilometers on a good day. I've tried just about everything to enhance the reception, but nothing works. Boosting the output power on the transmitter just burns it up, and tweaking the sensitivity on the receiver just draws more of the interference."   
  
"Have you tried changing the frequency?"   
  
"Yeah. The interference covers all bands of radio transmission, it seems. I could change the transmitter to infrared, but that would require line-of-sight and defeat the purpose of the thing anyway. Dad used to use these to track animals in case they wandered off the farm, but ever since the interference started after the Sorceress War they've been up on a shelf. I'd been playing with this one for a while. Pretty lucky, huh?"   
  
The cadet nodded and smiled. "Might be just the break we need." Vincent turned off the receiver and looked up. "Where's your father?"   
  
"In the kitchen. He called the Garden while you were dealing with the monsters."   
  
"Thanks." Vincent stepped into the kitchen and sat across the table from Shane. "What did the Garden say?"   
  
"They're sending some people to handle the situation, that's all I was told. The Headmaster wants you to call him back so he can talk directly to you."   
  
"May I use your phone?"   
  
"Of course," said the farmer. "Right over there."   
  
Vincent picked up the receiver and dialed Balamb Garden. Once connected he gave his student ID number and asked to be transfered to the Headmaster's office. After a few seconds of waiting his call was patched through. "Good evening, Vincent," Cid said from the other end. "I trust all is well?"   
  
"Yes, sir," replied Vincent. "We're all right, the Onders are fine and we drove off the swarm. Mr. Onder told me you wanted to speak with me directly?"   
  
"That's correct." There was the sound of Cid's chair creaking as the Headmaster reclined. "I have evaluated the situation and I have decided to bring you, Cloud and Tifa back to the Garden. You've all done extremely well, so please don't think this is a punitive act. I've dispatched a team of SeeDs to your location, and as soon as they arrive I want you to return."   
  
"Yes, sir," Vincent repeated. Despite the Headmaster's reassurance he felt somewhat crestfallen. He was sure the three of them could finish this mission -- unless there was something Cid wasn't telling him, something that made it more dangerous than he thought. "Do you want us to call in before we leave?"   
  
"No need. As long as the three of you make it back safely, that's all I care about. You've done well, Vincent."   
  
"Thank you." Vincent hung up the phone and sighed. How were Tifa and Cloud going to take this? Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things, of course, but they were probably going to be just as disappointed as he was. He stared at the phone for a few seconds before thanking Shane again and making his way to the living room.   
  
Tifa was still staring at the ceiling and Cloud was gazing somewhat anxiously out the window. Vincent really didn't want to have to be the bearer of this news, but if there was one thing he had learned in his time as a cadet, it was that there were many things in life he would have to do that he didn't want to. "The Headmaster wants us to return to the Garden as soon as the SeeDs he sent get here." He expected something, maybe just a groan from Cloud, but all he got was silence. In an attempt to change the subject and satisfy his own curiosity, he asked, "Have either of you ever heard of a place called Nibelheim?"   
  
Both of the other cadets looked sharply at Vincent. As one they opened their mouths to speak, and just the same they closed them again as the realization that they didn't know where this "Nibelheim" was took hold. But... "Must mean something," concluded Cloud. "I could have sworn I knew where it was for a second. Got a picture of this big mansion, and strange mountains. Reminded me of the dream I had the other night."   
  
Tifa added, her voice shaking slightly, "Me too. Not the mansion, but the mountains, and some strange building, like a factory, or a power plant or something."   
  
"Why do you ask?" Cloud inquired.   
  
The images of his dream came back to Vincent, and he described them in the best detail he could. "There were two names that stuck out in the dream, two people that were important. One was a woman named Lucrecia, and the other was a scientist named Dr. Hojo. I guess I had a thing for Lucrecia, because I remember wanting to spend time with her. Hojo gave me the creeps. Something about him being always on edge, like he was about to go crazy."   
  
Perhaps Tifa had heard about a man named Hojo a long time ago, or maybe she was confusing the name with something else, but the ghost of a bespectacled face floated in her mind's eye for an instant. There were whispered rumors among SeeD cadets that Guardian Forces could steal memories from those Junctioned to them. Had the three of them suffered this memory loss, forgetting a story they had heard in childhood? "This is creeping me out, guys. Do you think we should tell someone about this?"   
  
"I think we should keep it to ourselves until we figure out what it's all about," said Cloud. "Don't want them thinking we're crazy, do we?"   
  
Vincent nodded his agreement. "I say we keep a lid on this for the time being. It might be nothing."   
  
"Then again it might be something," Tifa argued. "You're right, though. I do want to explore this later, it feels... important."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
The night around the Onder family home was dark and still in the aftermath of the mutant Bite Bug attack. Cloud, Tifa and Vincent sat on the front steps awaiting the arrival of the Balamb Garden SeeDs. No one spoke.   
  
Eventually two points of light appeared on the horizon, the headlights of the car from the Garden. The cadets rose and picked up their belongings. The car pulled up and stopped, and three uniformed SeeDs stepped out. The driver was a dark-skinned man easily identifiable as SeeD Derek Thompson. His two passengers were a lanky blonde with the launch mechanism of a wingedge on her right forearm -- Doctor Kadowaki's assistant Dia L'nar -- and a petite auburn-haired young woman, carrying a rante much like Instructor Trepe's, whom the cadets couldn't recognize. Thompson hauled a large hardcase much like Cloud's out of the back seat of the car and approached the cadets.   
  
As one the cadets saluted. "Cadets Valentine, Strife and Lockheart," Vincent announced crisply.   
  
Thompson tossed a half-hearted salute back to them and chuckled. "Glad to see you're all in one piece. Anything we need to know before you folks take off?"   
  
"One of Mr. Onder's sons, Richard, attached a tracking device to one of the surviving monsters," Tifa said. "He's got the receiver unit. You should be able to use it to verify the location of the nest, along with the map we marked with the locations of previous known attacks for triangulation."   
  
"Thorough, aren't they," said the redhead with a small degree of sarcasm.   
  
"Makes our job easier," Thompson replied sagely. "Ready, Dia?" he asked of the blonde, who silently nodded as she loaded the drone onto her wingedge. "I guess that's it, then. Have a good drive back."   
  
The cadets loaded into the car and pulled away from the farmhouse. The drive back to the Garden was uneventful, and by the time Vincent drove into the garage Tifa and Cloud were both asleep. He was half-tempted to leave them as a friendly joke. Cloud stirred when Vincent shut off the engine, however. "I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to my bed," Cloud said as he climbed out of the car.   
  
The next morning as the trio walked into class it seemed like the previous few days were a strange shared dream. The normalcy of the classroom, Instructor Trepe's calm voice drifting back to them from behind her desk in the front of the room, Seifer Almasy's self-important swaggering, Squall Leonhart's self-absorbed silence, Wimbley Donner's incessant rambling about the Garden Festival, it all wrapped around them and folded them back into everday life at the Garden. Instructor Trepe informed the trio that they had fulfilled their requirements to take the Field Exam and dismissed the class for lunch. The day went on.   
  
After personal training in the afternoon they regrouped for dinner, joined by Lucia. She listened intently to their tales, absorbing every detail. Most of all she focused on Cloud. The group split up for the evening, Lucia dragging Cloud to the Quad to watch a talent competition and Tifa and Vincent heading to the library to search for information on the names Nibelheim, Lucrecia and Hojo.   
  
That night as Tifa lay in her bed she turned over the events since her arrival here at Balamb Garden not even a week ago. It was hard to believe so much had happened in so short a time. As she drifted off to sleep she thought she felt Lucia watching her, and she was comforted.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
For Niles Reno, Victor Rude and Elena Mitchell there was no such comfort that night. After narrowly avoiding a run-in with three SeeDs on the road, the trio finally discovered the cave where the mutant Bite Bugs were laired. The insectoids seemed oddly reluctant to confront the agents. Rude kept them out of the cave, not wanting to push their luck any farther than necessary.   
  
They still hadn't found their quarry, however, and the SeeD cadets had slipped their grasp. Rude muttered a curse and slammed an iron-hard fist into a tree trunk in disgust. How much the cadets knew about this situation was anyone's guess. President Deling was not going to be happy with their report. Privately, though he was angry with himself for his failure, Rude was pleased that the cadets had gotten away; he had no desire to harm any of Cid Kramer's people. The bargain struck between the two men two years ago had made no mention of preventing conflict between Matrix and SeeD, but Rude was, if nothing else, a man of honor.   
  
Still, the Matrix agents had a job to do. "I'll be damned if this guy gets away," Rude growled.   
  
"Standing around here isn't going to help. Ten to one says those SeeDs are here to take out this nest," Reno said, jerking a thumb at the black hole of the cave's mouth. Privately he bemoaned the fact that full-fledged SeeDs were on the case. The cadets had probably been recalled, and that meant he couldn't arrange any convenient accidents. "I've got an idea."   
  
The fire-maned agent surprised Elena with his knowledge of the geography of this area, gained by several headache-inducing hours of pouring over topographical maps. There was another cave about three kilometers away to the north-northwest, and if their prey was sticking close to his experiments, they might find him there. The blonde woman found herself struggling to keep up as the men strode in that direction.   
  
They had traveled no more than a kilometer through the woods when the first explosions sounded behind them. The SeeDs had located the nest, and the extermination had begun. The trio paused, then Elena and Rude looked to Reno in silence. He simply shrugged, a satisfied smirk on his lips.   
  
What a prick, Elena thought.   
  
The cave Reno had mentioned dug into the south side of a steep, shale-lined ravine. To this point Rude's pattern scanner had been silent, but as they emerged from the trees at the top of the ravine's southern face it whooped out multiple warnings. Elena and Reno whirled at the sudden sound. The bald agent cursed himself for a fool and stabbed at the key that would mute the audible alert. Whatever it was, it knew they were coming. And it was already on its way. "I've got... three signals, coming up--" he began. The sound of loose shale clattering down in a pebbly avalanche finished the warning for him. Rude calmly pocketed the scanner and adjusted his sunglasses. "Looks like we're gonna do this the hard way," he said, and cracked his knuckles.   
  
Behind him, Reno snapped together his electomag rod. Elena drew forth twin curved kukri knives, their polished blades reflecting the moonlight that bathed the scene of the coming carnage. The redhead muttered to himself about beer under his breath, then lost the comment when the first of their adversaries launched itself over the edge of the ravine at them. Rude threw himself away to the left as the creature landed. Elena backed up three paces in shock.   
  
In the moonlight it was initially hard to tell what the thing was. It was bipedal and scaled, with a wiry predator's body and a long balancing tail held parallel to the ground. Nimble grasping arms sported three-fingered hands. Eyes sparkling with feral intelligence glittered over a snout full of knife-like teeth. A double row of sharp bony ridges started behind the creature's skull and ran down past its hips.   
  
Reno leveled his weapon and thumbed the energy-release with a surprised yell. A ball of lightning blasted off the rod and slammed into the man-height creature's head, knocking it back into the gorge. "The hell was that thing?" Reno shouted in the aftermath of his strike. He was answered by one of the beast's companions.   
  
A saurian head popped up and ball of blazing flame illuminated the night, scattering the Matrix agents even further than the pounce of the first beast. Elena ducked behind a tree and pulled her arms tightly against herself. She didn't want to believe what she had just scene. (The head... It's a T-rexaur, probably a juvenile to judge from its size But it was breathing flame! How? And what's with those spines?)  
  
Taking advantage of the space cleared by the firebreather, the third T-rexaur levered itself up and swept its gaze from left to right. Reno popped out of hiding from behind a rotting fallen log at just that instant, pointing his weapon at the beast. Its eyes narrowed in irritation and its fanged maw opened, spewing forth, not fire as its companion had, but a jagged crystaline ball of ice. The orb sailed at the agent, missed his head by mere centimeters as he ducked and shattered against a tree a meter beyond. The tree's trunk splintered under the assault. Sharp ice and wood showered down on the agent.   
  
"Any brilliant ideas, Rude?" Reno called. He reached up blindly and discharged his rod once more, missing so wildly the creatures standing at the lip of the ravine didn't even flinch. Reno risked another glance; the third beast had rejoined its companions.   
  
The bald agent flexed his hands and released them repeatedly. T-rexaurs were incredibly dangerous, even when young, and these ones had been tampered with by the agents' quarry. He saw a pattern, however, and a theory began to form in his mind. "See what that third one does!"   
  
Reno momentarily pondered which was more dangerous -- his foes, or his supposed teammate. "Are you insane?" He poked his head up once more. Immediately he yelped and ducked again as a brilliant bolt of lightning sizzled through the space his head had just been. It scorched the abused tree beyond him. "Dammit!" At least they had their answer now.   
  
Elena shifted the knife in her right hand to her left and reached into her pocket to feel for the small stones she had kept for an emergency of this magnitude. Just her luck, she had two of what she needed in addition to several Fire Fangs she'd picked up. And she knew that Rude carried one other thing she would need. With these, she could probably get two of the beasts to kill each other. They'd have to keep the monsters relatively close together for her idea to work, and then handle the lightning-spitter, but three on one was much better odds in her mind. "Reno! We need to get them into a place we can keep the fire-breather and ice-breather penned up!"   
  
"Yeah, but..." Reno's reply was cut off by a trio of roars from the T-rexaurs. Evidently tired of playing with their food, the monsters charged, one directly at Reno, one closing on Rude and one searching out Elena. "Shit!" The agent bolted from his hiding spot and dashed deeper into the woods. Years of training paid off in keeping him a few steps ahead of the saurian predator, but it wouldn't last forever.   
  
Rude closed his eyes and listened to the ground-pounding tread of the beast as it approached. He knew it could smell him where he stood behind this tree, but that was fine. He just needed it close enough... Now. He whirled around, stepping to his right and swinging a fist at the head of his adversary. A miscalculation; the beast ducked at the last minute and plowed its massive bulk into the agent, sending him flying. Rude sailed through the air and miraculously avoided having his head dashed against the trunk of a towering oak. The breath had already been crushed out of his lungs by the body slam and his vision blurred as he crashed to the forest floor. His sunglasses flew off into the underbrush. The saurian roared in triumph and stalked toward him, jaws spreading to reveal dagger teeth.   
  
A globe of fire sizzled out of the dark and smashed into the beast's head. It staggered, shook its head and roared again, this time in rage. Nostrils flared as it sought out the source of the attack. Rude took advantage of the distraction and scrambled to his feet. Elena, who had hooked back in her flight from her own pursuer and lobbed the fireball that saved his hide, dashed toward him. Rude wound up and slammed his fist into the head of the creature, in the sensitive area just behind its jaws, and sneered as the monster fell over onto its side, stunned. "Where's Reno?"   
  
"I don't know, but here comes the one that was after me!" Elena shouted. She took off running, the bald man hard on her heels.   
  
Niles Reno had never run so hard in his life. Not from bullies in the streets of Deling City. Not from monsters, or SeeDs. But now he ran for his very life, leaping over bolts of bright white that seared the ground and ducking under and aside from blasts that split the air around him. Spell-breathing T-rexaurs... this was too much! At one point he dug in his feet and twisted around, bringing his charged electromag rod down on the snout of the beast chasing him. The creature paused, blinked, snorted, and proceeded to knock the Matrix agent into a tree with its muscular tail. Reno heard something crack, and he knew from the flare of pain that it wasn't the tree. All this way to be killed by an overly-attitudinal monster. What a joke.   
  
More fireballs flew out of the dark. The redhead hadn't heard his teammates approaching over the roaring in his ears and the noise of his brief clash with the young T-rexaur that was about to bite him in half. The twinned flaming orbs missed the monster, impacting with the ground between it and the gasping agent, but it was enough. The beast reared back and appeared to be reconsidering its strategy.   
  
"No time to sit down on the job, Reno!" Rude hollered as he and Elena dashed up to the wounded man. The bald agent hauled Reno to his feet. The redhead's scream of pain drew the attention of the monster that had smacked him. Rude drew forth a vial filled with a viscous liquid, popped the cap with his thumb and dumped the contents into Reno's mouth. The redhead swallowed quickly.  
  
The para-magic contained within the concoction was released. Bone reknit in an instant, and not a moment too soon. The T-rexaur standing in front of the agents was joined by the one that had been chasing Elena, and then by the one Rude had punched.   
  
"You wanted 'em together," Reno gasped. It was nice that he wasn't in pain now, but he was willing to bet the pain was about to start all over again. "There they are."   
  
"Where's this spot you mentioned?" Elena asked. The monsters exchanged glances and hissed at each other, almost as if conferring about what to do next.   
  
"About two hundred meters from here there's a cut formed by a creek. Should be able to have your round up in there, but why?"   
  
"I've got a surprise for these ugly freaks. We just have to take out the lightning-breather and get the other two to fight each other in a place where we can keep them from running away if one gives up."   
  
Rude flexed his hands again. He would have prefered a stand-up fight to all this running and para-magic, but against these beasts that wasn't going to happen. He could see the basis of Elena's plan; T-rexaurs were vulnerable to cold, and it seemed logical that the fire-breather would be even more so. If the genetic alterations that gave these monsters breath weapons also altered their weaknesses, then it was possible that the ice-shooter was vulnerable to fire, like many cold-based monsters were. The third one... it was another story. But what was this surprise? "Let's do it. Reno, you're in the lead. Elena, you follow. I'll keep these things off your tails." The monsters continued to consult each other, but one of them was watching the agents at all times.   
  
"Don't you do anything heroic, Victor Rude," the blonde woman snapped with an unusual harshness. "You ready, Reno?"   
  
Reno nodded and clenched his teeth. This was gonna suck...   
  
"One... two... three!"   
  
The redhead put everything he had into making his legs move. The dark forest echoed with the whooping warcry he bellowed, partly to give himself courage, partly to make certain the T-rexaurs were paying attention. Elena charged after him, screaming as well, and Rude brought up the rear. He made no sound. It didn't much matter anyway.   
  
Still, he had to wonder why Elena had been so sharp with him. He planned to live long enough to find out.   
  
Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate. Maybe the tales about the spirits were true and someone was watching over him. But Niles Reno didn't trip over a single root or rock or hole in the forest floor as he sprinted through the night-shrouded wood toward the cut. He heard the trickling of water cutting through the pounding of his heart, the thundering of T-rexaur footsteps, the sizzling and blasting of their breath weapons. This just might work after all. He rounded a curve in the hill, and there it was, perhaps twenty meters wide and deep, a hollow for Elena's chosen targets. Reno scrambled up the hill on the opposite side of the hollow and clambered into a tree, then aimed his electromag rod. The one in the rear should have been the lightning-breather. With a whisper of, "This had better work or I'm gonna be pissed," he let loose another charge. The glowing ball impacted with the monster's snout and snapped it to the side, causing the beast to fall and roll. Too much to hope for that its neck might be broken, he thought. He aimed and fired again, this time to keep the two other T-rexaurs off his partners' backs.   
  
Elena and Rude pulled themselves up the hill next to Reno. "Hit one of them with one of the Fury Fragments you carry, Rude," Elena said. The bald man had no idea how she knew he was carrying the bone shards charged with Berserk energies, but he drew out a blood-red fragment and whipped it at the two monsters. It bounced off the hide of the one on the left and shattered into a crimson fog as the para-magic within broke free. The spell-stricken beast shook its head in confusion, then turned and swiped at its companion with a howl of rage. The T-rexaurs were suddenly tangled in a nasty ball of scales, fangs, claws and blood.   
  
"That won't last long," Rude said. Reno shifted his fire to the third monster, which was getting back to its feet. His blasts weren't wounding the saurian in the slightest but they did keep it off-balance.   
  
"It won't have to." Elena pulled out her surprise and handed one to Rude. The stony orb was a startling golden-orange.   
  
The bald man stared in disbelief. "Flare stones? Where did you get them?"   
  
"I have my sources. Don't gawk, throw!" Together the agents hurled the spells. Power like nothing Rude had ever seen before lay tightly curled inside the stones, ready to explode the instant the orbs impacted. The energies erupted with a terrible vehemence, an almost gleeful detonation that surprised them both.   
  
Searing heat melted through the scales of the twined monsters and the forest echoed with their cries of pain. In its unnatural frenzy the ensorcelled beast lashed out at the closest thing to it, its companion, and that strike drove the other into a matching rage. Fire and ice blasted forth from their deadly mouths as the altered T-rexaurs shredded each other.   
  
Reno knocked his target over again and laughed. "I'll be damned! They're tearing each other to pieces. Nice job, rookie!"   
  
"Thanks. Now just keep that one pinned for us, would you?"   
  
Their natural defences already melted away by the powerful para-magic, the battling saurians quickly ended each other's lives with their breath weapons. Tails twitched, then fell still; breath escaped from the T-rexaur's bodies one final time. "Bingo," Rude said. "Let's finish the last one."   
  
Reno blasted the remaining monster once again. By this time the beast was furious, frustrated by the repeated knockdowns the redhead had inflicted on it. It charged forward. Reno placed a shot carefully in front of the beast, making it stumble. Rude and Elena dashed out to meet it, swinging around to each side in a pincer attack. The beast swung its head aside from Elena's slashing kukri only to receive a steel-hard fist to its nose. Razor-sharp metal slashed across its vulnerable eye, blinding it on one side. The monster thrashed in agony and its tail swept Rude's legs out from under him as it wheeled and bit at the source of its pain. The blonde woman brought her other knife down in an overhand slash, scoring the creature's nose. It howled and backed away, crackling lightning gathering in its mouth.   
  
The blast never got a chance. As the monster retreated its wickedly-clawed feet came increasingly closer to the stunned Rude. Reno shouted his partner's name and readied another shot to knock the T-rexaur off to the side. Rude's arm moved and a bead of gold bounced off Elena's knee. The woman's eyes went wide, then her whole world erupted in a blaze of light.   
  
There was no way she would let this thing hurt Rude.   
  
Another yell tore from her throat as she dashed forward with unnerving swiftness. Her kukri were lined with golden flame as she slashed again and again at the astonished monster. Its blood flew through the air with the force of her strikes and terrible pain registered in its mind for a moment before the blonde woman leapt into the air and drive one of her knives into its skull. It died instantly, the body teetering, then falling lifelessly to the side.   
  
There was silence for several seconds. Then Elena said quietly, "What was that?"   
  
"That," Rude said as he levered himself to his feet, "was a Limit." He tried not to think about how close the T-rexaur had come to stepping, then falling on him as he lay on the ground gasping for breath. He didn't know the first thing about Limits, except that they appeared in times of great stress, and that the object he had hurled had contained a rare spell which brought that potential to the fore. Whether or not Elena would be further affected by the incident he could not say. There was one man who might know, though. He'd have to make a call later.  
  
"A what?" Reno inquired.  
  
"Nevermind," Elena breathed. She didn't want to think about it. Whatever it was, it was over. "Let's just get out of here."   
  
As quickly as they could the agents made their way back to the ravine. Fortunately there were no scaly surprises waiting for them. The sound of a man's voice, oddly pitched and repeating a few strange phrases, drifted up out of the gorge to their ears.   
  
Reno smirked as he leaned over the edge of the ravine. "He's down there."   
  
"Then let's get down there and dig him out," rumbled Rude. He began to clamber down the ravine, dislodging shale and pebbles in a clattering shower.   
  
The mouth of the cave was perhaps two and a half meters in diameter, easily passable by the creatures that had just tried to kill the agents. Moonlight penetrated only a few meters into the darkness beyond. The voice was coming from inside. After taking the time to ensure no surprises lay in store for him, Rude stepped into the cave.  
  
Beyond the boundary of the exterior illumination his foot crunched down on... something. He froze; nothing came at him out of the dark. Behind him Reno and Elena entered the cave, and he whispered a warning. It didn't do much good. The cave floor seemed to be littered with more of whatever it was Rude had stepped on. Though the agents took to sliding their feet across the rock floor the clattering of the hidden detritus was more noise than they wanted to make.   
  
Still nothing came to meet them, and they neared the source of the voice and a flickering light as the tunnel rounded a gentle curve. The illumination of a single battery-powered lantern traced a gawky figure, sitting in a metal folding chair next to a wobbly-looking table. This was their mark. Rude straightened, adjusted his jacket and strode into the lantern's globe of light.   
  
The disheveled man that pulled himself out of the chair looked nothing like a scientist. More like an accident victim, perhaps. His dungarees and shirt were stained and torn. Wildly unkempt brown hair waved about as his head snapped from side to side, like a cornered pigeon in a city park. His brown eyes, intelligent yet almost feral, took in the three agents. An expression, not of fear, but of bewilderment settled over his filthy face. "You... You're the test subjects? But how... The G-rexaurs..." The man turned quickly, nearly sending himself sprawling, and looked upon three great broken eggshells.   
  
"Is that what you call those things?" Reno sneered. "They're taking a little dirt nap." He closed in on the man.   
  
The man's face twisted into astonishment, then outrage, finally settling on disbelief. "No," he said with a firm shake of his head, "that's not possible. The three of you couldn't have defeated them."   
  
Rude chuckled, then moved forward to take hold of the man's upper arm. "Believe what you like," he said, "but it doesn't matter. We're here to take you back to Deling City."   
  
"You can't do that!" the scientist shrieked. "He's calling me. Now that I've succeeded with the T-rexaur variants I have to go to the ruins where my master awaits!" He began to struggle, trying vainly to pull his arm from the bald agent's firm grip. "Let go!"   
  
"What ruins?" Elena demanded. There were a few towns in Galbadia that had been torched during the Sorceress War against Esthar and left dead. Maybe he meant one of those.   
  
Unfortunately no answer was forthcoming. Strength drawn from the edge of madness gave the scientist the power to wrench free of Rude's grip and shoulder past Reno. The bald agent flicked the spell bead he held and concentrated briefly; the tiny orb hit the man in the back and shattered. The scientist tumbled to the ground, instantly unconscious.   
  
Reno sniffed derisively. "Cute."   
  
Rude hefted the sleeping scientist and draped the man over his shoulder with little effort. "We've got a long walk. Let's get out of here." He began making his way out of the cave with Elena.   
  
The flame-haired Matrix agent lingered a moment, glancing around. He could see now that they had been stepping on pieces of eggshell and Bite Bug, probably from their prey's experiments. The man's journal lay on the table, wide open. Reno flipped backward a couple pages, scanning the entries; complete nonsense, for the most part, except for one.   
  
"Subject #452981A-04GR unviable. Integration of strains XR-091, XR-092 and XR-095 failure. Strains incompatible. Disposal to follow." Evidently something had gone wrong, which was probably a blessing. No telling what this thing was supposed to be. Reno pocketed the journal and began making his way out of the cave.   
  
Something large, round and hard tripped him. He sprawled on the floor, muttering curses, and kicked out at his inanimate assailant. Whatever it was, it rolled away. The agent picked himself up, brushed himself off and stalked out of the cave.   
  
Behind him, a large egg rolled into the lantern's light and came to rest against a leg of the folding chair. It was still for several minutes... then quivered once.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Cid glared at his terminal panel and tried for the forth time to read SeeD Argent's report. Too many things on his mind; the words refused to make sense. Despairing of ever being able to concentrate again, the Headmaster took off his glasses with one hand and rubbed his eyes with the other. The sound of his office's door opening drew his attention. Cid couldn't make out the face, but he could feel the other's eyes from across the room. He knew before he put his glasses back on his face what he would see. Headmaster Corron Martine of Galbadia Garden had arrived.   
  
"Certainly been an eventful couple of days, hasn't it," the Galbadian Headmaster said. A sarcastic smile twisted Martine's lips as he crossed the distance to Cid's desk and sat on the edge. He turned his head to look back at the Balamb Headmaster and said, "You got away with a pretty dangerous gamble this time around, Kramer."   
  
Cid sniffed and rubbed a finger along the side of his round nose. "I assure you, Martine, everything was well in hand. The cadets fulfilled their mission with remarkable skill and, more importantly, knew better than to protest being pulled out. There are great things in store for those three."   
  
"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me. Just letting you know how close you came to a real disaster."   
  
"Thank you," Cid replied with heavy sarcasm, "for your unflinching support." Martine was one of Cid's most helpful allies, but Cid had no need for his fellow Headmaster's casual reminder; he'd already spent too much time pondering whether he had crossed the line this time. "As you can see all turned out for the best. Strife, Valentine and Lockheart are now qualified to take the Field Exam at the end of this term, the Galbadian rogue has been apprehended and the mutant problem is well on its way to being eradicated."   
  
Martine lifted his eyes toward the blazing blue sky visible through the glass dome. "Yes, but we still don't know what Deling gained from this."   
  
"If anyone can find that out, it will be you," Cid told him.   
  
"You flatter me." The Balamb Headmaster chuckled at this and was about to speak when the desk's terminal beeped in a peculiar pattern. "That's peculiar," Martine observed.  
  
"You'll want to hear this. Stay silent." Cid touched the screen and accepted the voice-only call. "Kramer."   
  
"I thought I told you to keep those kids out of the way," said the man on the other end of the line. One of Martine's eyebrows twitched upward in amusement. "They came damn close to dying last night."   
  
"Everything was in control," Cid replied calmly, "and as you can see we all got what we want. You have your scientist and we have an end to the genetically-altered monsters."   
  
"I also have a suspicious teammate who would be more than happy to track your cadets down and kill them just because they know what he looks like. I had to call him off and now he's wondering where my loyalty lies," the man growled. "You're coming rather close to making me reconsider our agreement."   
  
"We can't have that," Cid said, maintaining his composure. "Please accept my apology. Now that the matter is settled there won't be a problem."   
  
A moment's pause, and something that sounded suspiciously like a muttered curse. Then the man on the other end said, "Let's keep it that way."   
  
"I'm glad we agree. Was this the only reason you called?"   
  
"No," the man told him, "there was one other thing. When we found him the scientist said something about 'ruins' and a 'master' that was waiting for him. I didn't like the sound of it. You might want to give it some thought and put some pressure on your infamous information network. I'm going to put out some feelers of my own."   
  
Martine and Cid glanced at each other. This was definitely not good. With what was happening to... Hopefully it wasn't related to that. Hopefully. Otherwise things were about to get a lot worse much quicker than anticipated. "I'll do that. This is definitely important news."   
  
The man made a noise of agreement, then, after another pause, said, "Your people continue to impress me. Makes me think there's still some hope."   
  
"We all hope so."   
  
"That's everything, then. You know how to contact me if you hear anything."   
  
"I'll do that." The line went dead, leaving the two Headmasters in silence. Nothing was ever simple, Cid mused. Everything seemed to have ripples of effect stretching out through space and time.   
  
Martine broke the quiet first. "It's starting."   
  
"It began some time ago. But now things are accelerating. We'll have to be more attentive from here on out." Cid noticed the Galbadian's eyebrow quirking again, and he knew the man was wondering where Cid got the idea he wasn't being attentive already. With a self-depricating laugh Cid continued, "We certainly won't be bored."   
  
"That we won't," Martine agreed. "That we will not indeed."   
  
Above the two men in that azure sky, the yellow sun continued its daily arc across the sky. What it saw, it kept to itself. But underneath its unblinking gaze there were no islands to themselves. Each person and thing was connected. Those connections had begun to pull the world toward an uncertain future in which its fate would be decided in an eternal instant.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
The members of Tifa's family, mentioned in Part One, are my creations, as are the Onder family, Bill MacReady, Derek Thompson, the unnamed redheaded SeeD and Firefoot the Chocobo. A whole lot more original characters will be appearing from here on out as the plot thickens.  
  
Special thanks go once again to Dianna Silver and Greenbeans, as well as the folks on #fanfics and #finalfantasygamers on sorcery.net on IRC.  
  
No animals or monsters were harmed in the creation of this fanfic. 


End file.
